


Nightingale

by harlequingirls



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove Being an Asshole, Cunnilingus, Eventual Smut, F/M, Oral Sex, Past Abuse, Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-07-07 20:56:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15916086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harlequingirls/pseuds/harlequingirls
Summary: Billy owes Nancy a dinner date after promising one.





	1. I'll be the worst thing for you.

So apparently, Billy owed Nancy Wheeler a dinner, which was normally against his rule of never treating a chick to dinner because that shit sounded an awful lot like a date. But for Nancy, who loved playing hard to get and it was working just a little too well on Billy, he would make an exception. They had never specified when this dinner would happen though, so he didn't approach her for about a week. Couldn't seem too desperate or too eager. He approached her locker, leaning up against it and giving her a million-dollar smile. "Wheeler," he greeted coyly.

Nancy jumped again, not expecting his prescence. Clutching onto a book she had almost dropped, she looked at him and raised her eyebrows. “Billy. What do you want now?”

"Now?" Billy repeated, pretending to be offended but his smile turned more coy and toothy. "I thought I owed you dinner. Were you just getting my hopes up?" 

"What are you talk- Oh .." She slowly closed her locker. "I mean, I was joking about that. Why, you want to take me out?" She smirked slightly, looking at him.

"So you were," he snickered. Then, he chewed the inside of his cheek contemplatively. Billy was thrown off. He didn't think she was joking in the first place, and he told himself his disappointment was just from his wounded ego. He smirked back at her with challenge and fire burning in his eyes. "Yeah."

"As long as it isn't sushi, then sure." She shrugged, still quite not believing she was agreeing to go for dinner with Billy Hargrove of all people."It's not a date, right? I don't have to dress up?" She asked, dreading the thought of having to wear those uncomfortable heels she wore the night before.

"Nah, just your pretty little self," Billy hummed. Great, so they were on the same page. He pushed himself off the neighboring locker to Nancy's. "Can I get you at 7?"  
"7 sounds good. I have to be back before 12 though. My dad doesn't like me being out so late." She moved some hair out of her face and leaned against her locker.

"I'm sure dinner won't take that long?" he teased with warmth. "I'll see you later then, Nancy." He brushed by her softly and rejoined his group of fake obnoxious 'friends' at the end of the hall. He would go about the rest of his school day as normal, driving Max home at the end of it.

Nancy was still showering once the clock hit 7, she had been running late because Mike took forever in the bathroom as he wanted to practice his hairstyle for the ball which was coming up real soon. Stepping out, she heard her mom open the front door and sighed. "Shit .." Running into her room, she pulled on a skirt and a large Harvard sweatshirt, something Steve had left over one night and had let her have it. She slipped on some trainers and tied her semi wet hair up in a quick bun.  
Along the way of chatting up her mother at the doorway, Billy had been invited into the kitchen again, since he was just """such an upstanding guy""" in the eyes of Karen Wheeler. Honestly, she was just too easy to charm and play. It reminded him of the first night he and Nancy humoured one another with their presences, sitting up on the counter. Mrs. Wheeler seemed absolutely tickled that they were going out somewhere together, and was chattering about something as he pretended to listen. Billy was wearing a pretty normal outfit: fitted jeans, an aviator jacket, and a button-up shirt. Except just the bottom two buttons were done.

Nancy put on some light make up, nothing too fancy and grabbed a jacket on her way out of her room. She held her middle finger up at Mike who was doing kissy noises towards her and walked downstairs into the kitchen. She looked at her mom and raised her eyebrows. "Thanks, mom .. I can take it from here." She rolled her eyes as she started to judge her choice of clothing and for not being more presentable. "Okay, bye!" She watched as her mother walked out of the kitchen holding Holly, still muttering about her sweatshirt. Turning back to Billy she slipped her jacket on. "Hey. Sorry."

Billy's eyes had started to drift out the window over the sink absentmindedly. His interest returned when Nancy stepped in, brightening up his whole face. "No biggie." He straightened up off the counter he'd been leaning on and walked towards her. "Are you going to Harvard?" he commented with a little sly grin. He nodded towards the door and started to walk.

"Not smart enough." She smirked. "It's not really my sweatshirt, anyway." she added, following him to the door and outside. "Where we going?"  
"Their acceptance rate's like, 1%. I'm sure that's not it." He glanced over it again. It did look a little big on her, but not in an unflattering way. He sort of figured it was a guy's, and the only guy Nancy had been with was Steve Harrington. Sort of made him want to rip the offending material off, but he just smiled sweetly and with teeth. The blue Camaro was parked on the curb in front of the yard. He unlocked her side first for her. "Benny's. I hear it's haunted after the original owner blew his brains out. Spooky, right?"  
Classy.

"Lovely." She commented, getting inside and shutting the door after herself. She let her hair down, using her brush she brought with in her bag to tame her wild curls that were sticking out. Running her fingers through her hair, she double checked in the hand mirror to see if it looked alright.

He turned down the volume dial at the same time he turned the key in the ignition, knowing music was about to blast through the speakers if he didn't. He left the mix tape on as low, comfortable background noise. "Are you scared?" he laughed sarcastically. He knew she wouldn't be. Not much seemed to faze her. He revved the engine and took off away from her cul-de-sac. She glanced over at him and raised her eyebrows. "Scared? Of a haunted diner? I don't believe in that stuff." She leaned back in the seat and shrugged. "I haven't actually been there."

"I heard it was pretty popular," he shrugged. If there was one thing about Hawkins he wouldn't complain about, it was how the roads were way less busy and the distances shorter. He could get places fast with his erratic driving. Not that he minded taking a drive with her. He wasn't speeding as recklessly as usual. He eased into more serious conversation. "Still upset over Steve?"

She froze for a bit, diverting her gaze out the window. "Do I look it?"

He glanced at her from the side, then kept his eyes on the road ahead. Her stiffening posture was telling. Suburban streets and houses started to turn into the businesses and restaurants of Hawkins' small modest downtown. "No," he said thoughtfully, "but I can't read your mind."

"Well, I'm not thinking of him right now. I'd rather just forget about him for tonight." She looked back at him and shrugged.

"Fair enough. Sorry I brought it up then." He gnawed the inside of his cheek. He pulled the Camaro into a marked spot on the side of the main stretch of road. He paused to look at her directly before he killed the engine. "It's fine." She undid her seat-belt and opened the car door, stepping out. The street seemed empty and quiet, which was usual for a Thursday evening in Hawkins. Crossing her arms she stood on the sidewalk, waiting for him to get out.

Billy followed suit, locking the car up and straightening out his jacket. He pocketed his keys in the leather and sidled up next to Nancy on the sidewalk. The sign for Benny's was just a few paces down, not even a full block away. He put a hand on the small of her back as they started to walk.

Nancy straightened up slightly as they walked, her side brushing against his occasionally. "So, have you been here before?"  
"Yeah. Tommy's little posse likes to hang out here." He rolled his eyes a little at the thought. That guy had been annoying the fuck out of him lately. He was out of his mind again quickly. "And alone a few times." He rolled his shoulders. Sometimes he would come there late at night, when his house was loud and uncomfortable, since it was one of the only 24 hour places in Hawkins. "I'm sorta surprised you haven't. Have you always lived here?"

"Yeah, born and raised." She smiled slightly, remembering her earliest memories of meeting Barb. "You prefer California then, I presume?"

"Where it's actually sunny and warm and there's the ocean? Yeah," he laughed under his breath. "No offense to your cute little small town." He wouldn't be negative and say that he hated it, but he was still bitter about being so uprooted for his final year of high school. He pulled open the glass door to the little diner and held it for her. It sort of had that late-night homey vibe you get at a Waffle House or similar: where you seat yourself. "After you, Princess."

"It is a cute little town and it's sunny here sometimes!" She smirked, walking into the diner and thanking him. Looking around, she walked over to a booth in the corner. He slid into the seat across from her and didn't bother looking at the little plastic menus already spread out, knowing what he'd get. He just studied her instead, leaning one elbow up on the table and resting his chin on his fist. "Have you ever seen the ocean though? A sunset out on the West Coast?"

She slowly shook her head. "No, I was supposed to go on a road trip with my family but something came up with my dad's work. I'd love to though. " She glanced at the menu, biting her lip. "That's where I would've taken you, if we had that here." He sighed fondly as he seemed to look back on old memories. Memories when he did just that and it beat any diner or stupid Hawkins high school party hook-up. A sweet older woman, maybe in her sixties, waited on them, asking for their drink orders. Billy just got black coffee.

Nancy smiled at the woman and ordered a glass of water. Leaning back in the booth she looked back up at him. "We should go on a road trip after graduation." She joked, smirking.

Billy tilted his head at her and raised an eyebrow. "I was going to go back. After graduation." Get the hell out of this town, away from Neil. The diner was pretty empty, so the bustling waitress was back in a jiffy after pouring the coffee and water. Billy took it gratefully right from her hands, and she chirped something about how cute they were and missing her 'young love' days before she was gone again to let Nancy look over the menu. "But sure, I'd take you out to see it if you could tolerate the drive with me," he said with a smirk.

"You actually would?" Her face lightened up, smiling. "I mean, I've tolerated you for this long a few hours in the car wouldn't be so bad." Chuckling she pushed the menu away, decided on what she wanted. "As long as I don't get drunk and ask to jerk off on a couch?" he sassed lower so no one else could overhear, pure playfulness in his tone. "Sure, why not. You've got go at least once."

She rolled her eyes at his comment and smirked. "Okay, Hargrove. After graduation, we'll go."

He wasn't quite sure how he'd get her back, but the prospect sounded too nice. He would go back and forth if he had to, but didn't like the thought of her alone on a Greyhound on her way home. She'd be eaten right up. "Holding you to it now, Wheeler." When the waitress returned, Billy listed off his breakfast platter order but kept his focus on Nancy, focused on their conversation.

Nancy ordered a simple order of two pancakes with syrup. She didn't feel that hungry anyway. Giving the menu to the waitress she noticed Billy still looking at her. "Do I have something on my face?"

Billy blinked. "No, it's just polite to look when we're talking, right?" He grinned behind his coffee cup and batted his eyelashes. "After this- Do you wanna go anywhere? We've got 'til 12."

"Sure. We can go for a walk or something?" She sipped her water.

"A walk?" he repeated curiously, but not necessarily against it. "We could park by the quarry and walk around." The stars were pretty nice out there, away from street lights and houses.

"Do you have a blanket or something in your car to sit on? We could sit then." She shrugged smiling.

"A couple beach towels in the trunk, I think." He never took those out from his California days. "Sit out and drink. I've got a fake i.d. We don't have to though." It was one of his favorite past times actually. Sitting out on the edge of the water, usually on the hood of his car, with a six pack.

"That's fine with me. As long as you don't fall over the edge." She chuckled, thanking the waitress as she came over with their food. "Don't push me," he sassed back. He finally took his intent eyes off her as they ate. He drowned most of his breakfast food in Tabasco sauce.  
"Hm. I'll try not to." Smirking slightly she started to eat, looking out the window.

The check was left on the edge if the table for them to pay up at the register. Billy left a few dollar bills under his plate, which he polished up pretty fast along with his coffee. He gazed out the window as well, looking calm and thoughtful.

"You full?" She laughed quietly, looking at his plate and pushing her empty one to the side.

"I was hungry," he defended coyly. He never packed much of a lunch. He slid out of the booth. "You ready? I'm gonna go pay." Nodding quickly she stepped out of the booth, brushing down her skirt.  
The same woman rang them up, gave them lollipops like a grandma, and waved them off. Billy leaned on the door as he opened it again. There was a corner market on the same street, so he would just go there to buy drinks. "What kind of booze do you like? Something fruity n' weak?" He raised his brow. He was actually looking forward to it: going to one of his favourite spots without the solitude of it this time. It seemed like a good set up to kiss her, and he really wanted test his luck.

"I don't mind, whatever you want." She put on her jacket again, pulling down her sweatshirt slightly.

"If you're sure," he said with a shrug. At least he offered, but he usually just got the cheap shit. He handed her his keys so she could let herself into the car. "Wait out here so they don't card you too." He parked right in front of the store, so he just gave her a little nod before he went inside, grabbed a case of PBR and new pack of smokes, and spent his last five bucks.

Getting into the car, she turned the engine on to warm the car up. She hummed along quietly to the music playing.

He popped the trunk and put the box of beer inside next to the folded towels before getting into the driver's seat. "Miss me?" he asked as he rested his hand on the gear shift and got them rolling. "So much." She pouted sarcastically and smirked watching the road ahead.

"Aw, sweetheart, missed you too," Billy crooned. He set the pack of smokes on the centre console in a little cup holder and whipped the car hard towards the quarry. 

She smiled and rested her head on her hand as she looked out of the window, watching the moon as they glided through the quiet town.


	2. The Quarry

Billy didn't talk for the rest of the drive, but it was peaceful. He had nothing else smart-assed to say. The moon was full that night and the sky was clear. No one else was at the quarry. Sometimes teens liked to swim and fuck around there at night, but the water was still too cold. Billy parked near the top, where the rocks overlooked the water and it was too high to jump in. He pocketed the Marlboro's and got out. He paused with the trunk open, a hand resting on it. "Where're we gonna set up? You want to walk down near the water?"

"It'll be too cold down there. Let's just stay up here on the edge and hope we don't fall in." She smirked, taking the beach towels and laid them down. She sat down, her legs dangling off the edge. Billy straightened out the corner of one of the towels with his foot, set the case of PBR down, and then joined Nancy. It was a little nippy outside, but nothing too bad. "Are your legs cold?" he asked, considering she was wearing a skirt.

"A little." She admitted, shrugging lightly. "Is your chest cold?" She asked, smirking slightly.

"No, I radiate hotness. Like a furnace." He winked her way and took out a cigarette. Then, he shrugged off his jacket and set it in her lap. "You're a gentleman tonight, aren't you? Opening doors and giving out your jacket." She grinned, picking up a can.

"Is it making up for last time?" He cracked one open. One hand held a beer, the other held a cigarette. It was a typical image of the Hargrove boy. He took a sip of the watery beer, looking out on the water far below.

"Pretty much." She opened the can and took a sip, grimacing slightly. "Have you ever skinny dipped? I know people do it here a lot."

He looked right at Nancy with a big grin. "Why'd you think of that? You wanna freeze to death?" he snickered. He alternated hands, taking a drag of the cigarette. "I haven't. Beach was always busy. Not like this... Really, they do?"

"I'm not saying I would but I thought you would have done it." She smirked, looking at him. "Yeah, couples usually come here to do it. I know Tommy and Carol have, anyway."

"Nope, seriously haven't," he admitted. "But now I'm really, really tempted even if it's cold. Thanks a lot." He wondered if he could convince her, the thought now stuck in his teenage boy brain. Ahhh, maybe if it was warmer. He gulped down the rest of the beer like it was water and tossed it over the edge, watching it spin. "I'm not letting you. You'll freeze to death!" She shook her head, downing the rest of the can. Billy let out a long defeated sigh and flopped down onto his back, putting his hands behind his head and looking up at the night sky, the cigarette just hanging between his lips. The cherry glowed softly and ashes occasionally fluttered down onto his face, but the slight breeze blew them away. "It'd be worth it," he commented smugly.

Nancy watched him and smirked. "Up to you. But if you get pneumonia, it's your fault. " Picking up another can, she opened it and took a long sip. "I wouldn't do it by myself, shit," he laughed, holding out a hand as if to ask her to pass him another beer. He shifted a little on the towel. The rock below it was hard and a little cold.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to." She passed him a can and laid down beside him on her stomach. Billy just hummed, finding it better not to speak, even if there were so many cocky things he could say to that. Boy was it tempting. Right, he was trying to be a gentleman tonight., and maybe that would pay off. His eyes slid shut with content, trying to think back on the last time he tried this hard. He could feel a hint of her warmth next to him.

She studied his face whilst his eyes were closed. He had such long eyelashes and a small scar above his left eyebrow. Nancy bit her lip as she watched him.

He could feel her eyes on him, but just settled into it for a while and remained peacefully still. It was hard to drink when he was laying on his back; he brought the can to his mouth, taking the cigarette away, and wound up having beer run down the sides of his mouth. He grunted and wiped his chin with his sleeve. He finally opened his eyes and turned his face towards her, smirking and silently daring to comment on it. "Like what you see?"

"You looked so peaceful there for a second I thought you were going to fall asleep." She smiled slightly, sitting up on her knees and stretched her arms.

He set his beer on the ground and sighed. "Come back down," he said. "You were warm."

"The rocks were digging into my stomach." She sighed and laid back down on her stomach again, trying to move into a more comfortable position. "Lay on top of me," he suggested slyly, like it could've been just a joke, but not quite. Nancy shot a quick glare at him. "Funny."

"Sorry, sorry," he replied quickly, sensing the glare and backtracking. "You know you can sit up if you're uncomfortable." He looked back at her, his head turning a little against the ground. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Nancy sat up on her knees again and started to button up his shirt, her cold fingers touching his warm skin. "I know you think it's cool to have this undone, but when you get a cold and hang out with me again, you better not pass it on to me." He sucked in air through his teeth at her cold touch and raised his head up to watch what she was doing. He furrowed his brows and huffed like a scolded child. "I feel fine," he protested. "It's not like we're sharing drinks and shit anyway."

"You never know, Hargrove." She smirked, leaning over him to fix his collar. "What's that even supposed to mean?" he scoffed, smiling even though she was dressing him up more for fuck's sake. "There is gonna be 'again' though? Before California, of course," he reminded, even though he started to wonder if that was just a joke.

"If you want there to be one." She teased, lying back down but on her back. Her skirt rode up slightly and his jacket had slipped off her legs unnoticeable to Nancy.

He could spot it like a hawk though, and chewed the inside of his cheek. He ripped his gaze away up to the stars and took a long drag until the cigarette was burnt out. He flicked it away, over the side of the quarry, and let the cloud of smoke out slowly. But he was weak, and he was looking again, trying to be subtle about it so hopefully, she wouldn't fix it right away. He hummed and shrugged one shoulder. He rolled onto his side facing her, propping his head up on his fist. "Hell, why not."

She turned onto her side to face him at the same time. It was so cold that she could see her breath as she inched closer to him to keep warm. Her eyes stopped at his lips for a brief moment before back into his eyes. He was about to make a pouty comment about how his shirt felt too tight around his neck, because he never buttoned it to the top. He refrained when she rolled towards him in return. He reached over her, his intentions unclear for a brief moment, but he was just grabbing the jacket and pulling it back over her legs as a breeze rolled in. Then his arm didn't finish pulling back all the way; it draped over her side, right where her ribs and hips sloped down and met. He followed her eyes with his.

The silence was deafening between them. Nancy’s heart raced as he leaned over, she could feel his heart beat close to her chest too as she waited for a moment for him to make a move. When it didn’t happen she frowned slightly, glancing at his arm instead on her side and his jacket on her legs.

He wasn't quite sure why he didn't right away. Maybe the rejection would chip away at his ego some more, or the way Nancy frowned at his touch intimidated him a little and made it unclear if it was welcome. He made himself get over it, because he wasn't shy or something lame like that. He was Billy Hargrove, and he should've tried this shit long before. He gravitated towards her face and captured her lips while she wasn't looking. His mouth slotted against hers softly parted.

Nancy’s eyes quickly diverted back to him as he kissed her. Her lips moved against his more gently, her hand cupping his cheek. Billy grinned through the kiss. The arm around her easily reeled her light body in close so their fronts pressed together and shared warmth. Behind the beer she tasted sweet, like the pancakes she had. He slipped his tongue between her lips for a better taste, swiping it along the bottom.

She quickly pulled back and bit her lip, sighing quietly. “Sorry .. I’m sorry .. I can’t ..” She sat up quickly, hugging her knees.

Suddenly the warmth was gone and Billy's eyes snapped open. He mourned the loss of it with a sharp bite on the inside of his cheek. He stayed where he was for a moment, there on his side, studying her confusedly. He pushed himself up and smoothed a hand onto her knee. "How come?"

Nancy swiped his hand off quickly and stood up. “I want to go home.” She crossed her arms and walked over to the car.

"Nancy-" he started, voice low and raw, but she was already walking away by the time it left his mouth. He breathed a curse under his breath and pushed himself off the ground. He nudged the couple of beer cans off the edge apathetically and gathered the towels up into a ball under his arm. He needed another cigarette already. He knew it was sort of a dick move, and immature, to be irritated. He had enough decency not to take it out on her though and be a straight up ass, trying to force her to stay or something. "It's unlocked," he said behind a fresh smoke, throwing shit in the trunk.(edited)

Nancy opened the car door and got inside quickly, shutting it after her. She stared out of the window, shifting her seat slightly. She felt bad for just storming off like that but she just had to get home. Rubbing her hands, she continued to stare out the window. Billy joined her a few seconds later once everything was packed away. He cracked his window just enough to blow smoke out of and turned up the heater once the car was on. He stared out the opposite window for a while, not moving. He was thinking of something to say.

“Can we go?” She spoke finally after a while of silence. She crossed her legs, still staring out of the window. Her hands rested on her lap but still fiddled with a ring on her middle finger. Billy felt a fresh wave of anger roll through him when he couldn't think of what he wanted to say. Why was this so difficult? He put a hand on the gear shift and backed out, the sound of gravel crinkling under the tires the only thing between them. He turned on the radio to drown out the deafening silence as he drove.

Nancy kept her focus out the window, biting her lip. She could still taste the taste of a cigarette in her mouth. Leaning forward, she picked up her half empty beer and sipped some trying to drown out the taste. He wasn't sure if he wanted to drive fast to get her home or slow to see if he could pull some words out of his ass in that amount of time, so he just went at the speed limit for probably one of the first times in his life.

She glanced at him and looked back out the window. “I didn’t mean to lead you on.” He stepped on the pedal a little more, annoyed by how much her words stung. He made himself blame it on the ego again. Who was it? Was it still Steve? Jonathan? "It's no big deal, Wheeler. My mistake."

She breathed out a sigh of what seemed to be relief. Fiddling with her ring again she closed her eyes. “No it was mine.”

He huffed around his cigarette. He didn't want to argue about it, or he'd wind up saying something reactive and cold out of anger. He knew he was destructive like that. 'Should've known you wouldn't put out, Wheeler' or similar. He finally spared a glance to her, eyes flickering to the ring then back to the road. "It was nice anyway. And now we're even. So."

Nancy opened her eyes again, tilting her head slightly. “Even?”

"Yeah, sure," he said. "If you didn't take me in I probably would've slept in here," his fingers patted the wheel to signify the car, "so I really did owe you one."

“Yeah, well .. Let’s just pretend it never happened.” She bit her lip, looking down.

His eyes hardened on the road. "Am I embarrassing to you, Princess?" he laughed sourly. He turned into her neighbourhood. Ah, there came the reactive shit. He really couldn't stand himself sometimes."Yeah, sounds good. Would rather forget I was your confused rebound." He braked in front of her yard. "It's been real, Wheeler." 

“You’re not embarrassing to me, Billy. And stop calling me a fucking princess.” She looked over at him, frowning slightly. “And it’s completely normal for me to be confused. And I'm sorry you wouldn’t understand that. Considering you’ve never actually been in a relationship before or actually had feelings for anyone but yourself. Yeah, it has been real. Try not to crash on your way back." Unbuckling her seat-belt she stepped out of the car, slamming the car door and walking over to her front door waiting for her parents to answer as she left her keys inside. Sighing, she walked over to the window and looked at her father asleep on his chair.

"Yeah? The fuck do you know!" he snapped after her before the car door slammed, those last words pissing him off too much to stew silently over. "Not shit!" He floored it before he could watch her make it to the door. He still had a good portion of the beer case left and entire box of cigarettes to chain smoke through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oo trouble in paradise .. 
> 
> Leave Kudos for chap 3!


	3. House Party

Billy was back to behaving like a standoffish brute, leading his little pack of sniveling toxic-masculine tools and hovering in the halls between classes in a cluster. He was talking with Tommy H. and Richard (apparently they didn't still hate each other after their drunken fight at his last party and that was just a usual thing). He was hungover and short-tempered, but told himself it wasn't over Nancy. Nancy who?

Nancy walked down the hallway, holding onto the roses and card trying her best to avoid bumping into people. She looked around again, trying to spot either Jonathan or Steve in the crowd. It had to be from one of them, it just had to be.

The other boys watched Nancy pass and were quick to murmur and make comments about what the Wheeler girl was carrying and which sap could've possibly given it to her. They would gossip and cackle about anything., like a pack of hyenas. Much to Billy's annoyance, because he was supposed to be pretending she didn't exist. Now he had to know about that little bit of information and wonder who sent it also. She glanced at Billy and continued to walk forward, squeezing past people coming from the opposite direction. It was like a stampede.

Billy decided to walk to class a couple minutes early so he wouldn't have to hear the guys' chatter. People more or less moved out of his way as he walked so they wouldn't get shoulder-checked.

Nancy was barged into by a muscly basketball player who chuckled and said something along the lines of 'watch where you're going, slut.' She frowned slightly and looked over at Carol who was laughing with her bitchy friends. Of course, she spread a rumour. She pushed her way through the laughing crowd and continued on walking. Billy stole a glance at Nancy as he walked, timed just right to see the basketball player mouthing something as he walked away. He didn't like the look on his face, and his feet started to storm in his direction before his brain even processed it. His focus was stolen- probably a good thing, he was about to take a swing at the guy- by Carol and her clique. "Hey Billy," she cooed at him, waving him over to chat. He rolled his eyes internally, uninterested but figuring he'd humour them. "Ladies," he greeted to them on a purr.

Nancy scrunched up the note and threw it in the bin along with the flowers. She sat down on one of the tables and gulped, wiping under her eyes. Carol sent her the note and flowers as a cruel joke.

"Were you on a date with Nancy Wheeler last night?" "Stacey thought she saw you two at a stoplight." Billy looked between the cluster of girls, his fake sweet smile twitching for a second. Another reason to hate this small town. Why did anyone even care? Was there really nothing else to do but keep tabs on everyone? "No. Are you jealous?" he laughed dryly at them. "C'mon, no reason to be."

She quickly walked out of the classroom and looked over at Billy with Carol. So he was in on it too, she thought. Shaking her head, she watched them.

It seemed like everywhere Billy went, people wouldn't let him escape the thought of her. "Really?" Carol said sceptically, her brows raising with gleeful surprise, like she lived for this kind of drama. It had Billy's fuse was burning shorter, ready to blow in any second, which was honestly bad for everyone. "On the road out to the quarry?" She giggled. "You've taken us all out there, Billy. I'm not stup--" "Nothing happened, she's not a whore like you. Bunch of cunts," he snapped inevitably, leaving them all stunned.

Nancy looked down once she heard about him taking them all out there, one by one. She crossed her arms and continued to listen, eyes widening once he used the c word against them.

Billy didn't even notice Nancy was there, but could feel eyes on him but didn't really care. He knew he'd said it loud enough for plenty of people to hear. Good. "Excuse me?" the girls snarled out simultaneously in offense. Also good. "You heard me. You're all a bunch of sad cunts with nothing better to do and probably mad that I played you so easily, so get over yourselves. Like you didn't cheat on Tommy too, like you're so great, Carol. Bitch." He whipped away from them, a few people in the hall laughing and gawking. Nancy watched him and looked down quickly as he walked away from the girls. She leaned against a locker, ignoring the stares from Carol and her group.

All his focus was on the doorway to his senior English classroom. He needed to simmer down somewhere, before he punched somebody, or a locker. Fuck did it feel good though, and the girls looked visibly pissed and shaken by it. He eyed the bouquet in the trash near the door, not processing it right away and just walking to his seat in the back. Biting her lip, she made her way down the hallway with Jonathan to their Biology exam. Today was already a long fucking day.

Billy calmed down throughout the period. Enough. He drowned out his thoughts by listening to the lecture and taking the reading quiz, which was pretty easy for him. Towards the end of it, when the teacher droned on about their homework, his mind finally started to wander. He supposed it wouldn't hurt to think about Nancy there. He recalled the flowers in the trash, feeling a sense of satisfaction that she tossed them away. But he was now willing to admit that he curious over who sent them. Maybe it was written on the note. As the class started to empty, he headed towards the trash bin.

Nancy walked over to her locker once she was let out of her class, opening it and looked in the mirror. She quickly reapplied her lip-gloss and put it in her locker along with some other books that she didn't need for the day. "Nancy," his voice came from behind her. He had read the crumpled up card, and taken a couple of the roses into his hand. He was way less satisfied with his yelling at Carol after snooping through the contents of the note, since he should've torn into her so much more.

She looked in the mirror at him and frowned slightly. "What do you want, Billy?" She slowly turned around to face him, crossing her arms.

He stifled the urge to curl up his lip into a little defensive snarl. His brow just twitched into a little furrow. "I," he started apprehensively. He shoved out his hand holding the roses. "I'm sorry for last night or whatever."

"What about last night? All we had was dinner." She stared at the roses and took a step back. "I threw those away."

"Well, yeah, but-" Billy huffed. "I don't know. I figured they'd make the apology more convincing," he laughed dryly, feeling idiotic. "I think you should still have them anyway?"

She looked at people staring at them and whispering. "Uh ..I'd rather not. You should probably go give them to Carol or one of her girls. You know, the ones that you apparently take to the Quarry all the time?" She looked back at him, hearing a couple of people laugh. "It's not fair that I've been the one today that's been called a slut for going out there with you."

His grimace was telling. Damn, he was pretty exposed there. "I didn't mean for that to happen," he defended half-assedly, since he already knew it looked bad. And his intentions really hadn't been noble when he chose that spot the previous night. His eyes shifted around. He wasn't used to making a fool of himself like this. "No, fuck them," he grumbled, drawing away from Nancy and walking away. He glowered at a few of nosy teens and said, "What're you looking at?" to make them look away.

She frowned and followed him, grabbing his arm and pulled him into a quieter classroom with a freshman 10 minutes early to class. She gestured for the girl to leave and looked at Billy. “I don’t know what you want with me. So, if you could just tell me instead of offering roses, dinners and apologises for kissing me that’d be great.”

Billy stared hard at Nancy, eyes flickering warily to the freshman awkwardly clearing out and returning once they were gone. Feeling pinned, the blonde took a deep breath and rapped his foot against the floor. He didn't know, that was the thing. He should've lost interest. Alright, he was starting to know; he wasn't that fucking bull-headed. "I just liked your company. You aren't fake like everyone else I'm around."

Nancy looked down at her shoes and leaned against a desk. She thought for a bit and managed to look back up at him, keeping eye contact. "I just thought I’d be one of those girls to you. An easy target. I think that’s why I freaked out .. ”She bit her lip and stepped forward. “I hope we’re okay though? I like hanging out with you .. “

"No, it... It doesn't have to be like that," Billy resolved, giving her a soft nod. "We can just hang out, or whatever." He shrugged, leaning back against the chalk board. His smirk had finally started to return, with no bite behind it. "You definitely aren't easy, Nancy, alright? Anyway, did that guy in the hall say something to you? Should I kick his ass?"

She shook her head quickly. “No, no .. He was just being stupid. I didn’t take it to heart, it’s fine. I promise.” She crossed her arms and gave a small smile.

Billy's hands flexed against the little rim of the board. He hummed sceptically, but didn't press it. There were no guarantees if it happened again though. "Okay. I better go to class now. I can't be late again." He pushed himself up straight, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'll talk to you later then, Wheeler," he teased.

“Alright .. You go out first. I’ll wait a few minutes.” She smiled and stepped back, letting him pass. He moved by her, across the front of the classroom, and pulled open the door. He gave her one last glance and nod before stepping into the hall.

Nancy bit her lip and looked down, feeling glad that there was no bad blood between them. Although she did feel bad for lying to him, she didn’t want to be vulnerable in the moment so she chose to forget. After a few minutes, she stepped out of the classroom herself, walking towards her next lesson with her head held high.

\-----

Now that the drama between them seemed to have settled, Billy should've been able to focus on his notes. He actually did take notes usually even if he didn't seem like the type. At least his mind wasn't wandering anymore due to anger, like the period before. It was something more daunting instead: the realization that he might actually like Nancy Wheeler. And they were just maybe going to hang out now, like chummy pals. He groaned and thumped his head back against the back wall, making the person next to him squirm. He probably had this coming to him for a while.

Nancy walked out of her final class once the bell rang, holding onto her notebooks. Looking down the hallway, she noticed Jonathan and Steve talking quietly by Steve’s locker. Biting her lip, she turned around and started to walk the other way out of the school.

After maybe giving himself a mild concussion (not really) and definitely making the kid next to him uncomfortable and confused, Billy gathered up his things and left quickly. He passed Harrington and Byers in the hall, exchanging their typical wary looks of each other. Hopefully they weren't like everybody else, being gossipy as hell. Billy was walking towards his car, where he would have to wait for a little that day because Max was in AV Club.

Nancy walked down the steps and noticed Billy. She quickly caught up to him, fixing her backpack slightly. “Billy, hey!”

"Nancy," he greeted in response, slowing his long strides to walk in line with her through the lot. His voice was tired, but still warm. It really had been a long-ass day. He propped himself up on the hood of his car. "Your day get any better?" he hummed out.

“Not really. Tommy kept annoying me but it’s nothing new.” She sat beside him, looking up at the school. “You waiting for your sister?”

"I don't think he's capable of being un-annoying," he scoffed at the thought of the boy. He glanced over at where the middle school was across the field from the high school. "Yeah, thirty minutes every Friday," he said with an eye roll. "If my dad wouldn't flip his shit over her little boyfriend I'd make him take her home on his bike."

“I could stay with you if you want. I haven’t got any homework to do, so.” She shrugged, looking back at him.

Billy looked back at her, fighting the urge to tighten his jaw or chew the inside of his cheek. He pushed a hand the his hair and huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. "You don't have to do that y'know." He shrugged his shoulders and absentmindedly twirled his Zippo between his fingers. "I don't have much to talk about."

“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow or Sunday?. Unless you’re going to that party Carol’s throwing.” She hopped off the hood and looked at him. “I was thinking of going but I’m not too sure.”

"I don't know if I'm invited to that anymore," he laughed. "I sort of mouthed off to her, so..." It was probably expected of him to go. He had that keg stand record to maintain. "If you go, I'll go."

“Since when has being uninvited stopped you from going to a party?” She smirked, nudging him slightly. “I’ll go. Although I’m planning to get super drunk.”

"Touché," Billy said, matching her smirk. He cocked his head with interest, perhaps a bit of worry. Though just because of his newfound feelings he had begrudgingly accepted to himself, he wasn't about to baby her. Nancy was a big girl. "Of course, it's a party. I'll see you there then."

“See you there.” She smiled and walked off down the street to her house which was conveniently a road away.

As expected, Billy got some narrow looks when he let himself into Carol's house for the party in the evening, but no one confronted him. It had already been going on for about an hour, but he'd had a hard time getting out of his house beforehand. Neil wanted him to stay in, so he had to wait to slip out until the man had gone out to a bar. He preferred to arrive fashionably late anyway, when the party had already picked up and the music was loud. There was a marijuana smell in the air: a pleasant surprise as far as he was concerned. He figured he would follow the trail of it. Nancy was sat on the kitchen counter, already noticeably drunk and making out with a guy who was on the track team. His hands were under her shirt already as she quickly but sloppily pushed him away. Her eyes had a slight redness in them from the blunt she had been offered earlier.

He found the source of the smell, or at least one of them. A group of people on the living room sofa were passing some around. As all of that went on the in kitchen, Billy took a couple hits and took some sips from a cup a girl offered to share with him. When she started to get a little too cosy, pressing up to his front, he drew himself away. Normally he probably would have welcomed the contact. He just wanted to go to the porch, where they keg was typically kept. To do that, though, he had to walk through the kitchen.

 

The boy kissed her again, more forcefully this time. Nancy closed her eyes and tired to wriggle free of his grip, pulling away from the kiss to mumble a “stop.”

Billy caught sight of them when he entered through the open doorway. At first he just had a glance and it was enough to make his stomach turn and his high to go very bad. He didn't want to look, he just really wanted to self destruct and break his own keg stand record, and be mad at himself for catching feelings and wander what made track guy so great. Of course that meant he couldn't really notice her struggle. He got to the back door towards the porch when he heard her mumble. He was looming behind the other boy all at once, a hand clapping down on his shoulder. "Come outside with me, I need a spotter," he invited with dangerous venom, like he wanted to rip him apart-- but not get the tiles dirty.

Nancy opened her eyes and looked at Billy from over the boy’s shoulder. She bit her lip and fixed her shirt. The boy smirked at Billy, tilting his head slightly. “I’d prefer to stay here, actually. We were just going to go upstairs. You can have her after if you want, she’s incredible with her mouth.” He grinned, grabbing onto Nancy’s arm, pulling her off the counter.

"Were you, Nancy?" he asked towards her sceptically with a frown, though his eyes remained on the track member intently. If Billy had already been drinking, he would have clocked him already and not bothered with restraint. He glowered at his hand on her arm, feeling possessive suddenly and wanting to rip it off.

Nancy winced and pulled her arm away, rubbing it. She looked down at the floor. “No.” She managed to croak out. The boy scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Girls, always changing their minds. She does.” He went to grab her arm again.

Billy's hand jerked out and shoved him square in the chest, forcing him back a couple feet. "Leave. The whole party. If I see you straggling I'll kill you." From the seething deep way he spoke, there was no way to know if he was bluffing, but his words seemed scarily sincere. He shoved his way between them and put his hand on the small of Nancy's back. He turned his face against her ear, muttering much softer, "Stick by me."

“You seriously think she’s going to put out for you? Good luck, dude.” He scoffed and walked out of the kitchen into another room. Nancy breathed out slowly and looked up at him. “Thanks ..”

Billy watched after the boy, simmering and sort of wishing he just let himself lose control on him. His feet itched to pursue him and drag him outside. Still tense, the image of his nasty lips and hands on her, he snapped his eyes down to Nancy. He breathed in through his nose. "It's- If I hadn't been here, I swear-" he huffed. The weed wasn't helping his paranoia either. He shook his head and slumped his hand off of her. "Don't mention it. Do you wanna go sit down somewhere?"

“I don’t want to ruin the party for you. You shouldn’t have to babysit me.” She stepped away, sipping more from her cup. “I know what would’ve happened.”

"I don't care about the party, I came here to be with you," he snapped out, that whole scene and the drug in his system making him more open.

She frowned slightly. “What do you mean?” Putting the empty cup down on the counter, she decided to lay off the drinks for a while.

"Just what I said. I just want-" Billy breathed and glanced around at anything but her for a moment. When he looked back, his brows were furrowed with new resolve. "You have to be careful Nancy. Guys like that- You look good. You're pretty. They just want to get with you."

“It’s not my fault he tried to -“ She stopped herself, shaking her head. “It’s not my fault, Billy.” She slurred slightly, looking away.

"I didn't say it was." He sighed and moved away towards the kitchen island and mixed himself a drink. "I'm sorry. Let's not argue about it, okay? I was just... worried," he admitted behind his new cup before taking a long gulp.

“I’m not arguing with you. Can we just go somewhere more quiet?” She looked over to a couple practically tearing each other’s clothes off by the sink.

Billy hadn't even noticed them until he followed Nancy's gaze, having been too preoccupied on her alone. He nodded in agreement, trying to think of somewhere like that in the bustling party house. "Lead the way."

She started to walk through the crowds of people and ended up walking upstairs. Opening one door she stumbled into a bedroom which was already well, preoccupied. She gasped and covered her eyes, stepping out and slamming the door. "Shit .." She looked at Billy and laughed quietly.

Billy followed her up the stairs with only a moments hesitation to look around, checking if they were being watched. He would rather avoid a repeat of the time someone spotted them driving to the Quarry. "You'd think they'd know to lock the door," he joked back, seemed to have settled back down enough to join her in laughing. "Honestly that's probably what you're gonna keep getting if you're looking in bedrooms. There's a balcony down the hall?". She nodded and walked down the hall, glancing at family pictures hung all over the walls. "They sure love their photo shoots." She muttered, walking onto the balcony and sitting down on a fold out chair.

Billy leaned over the railing, looking out on the back yard below. It seemed a little less chilly than it did that night at the Quarry. That was nice. Billy wished he would stop thinking back on that night however, when he got to taste her lips and hold her close even for a few fleeting moments. He wondered if he would've dropped this sort of contact with her if she hadn't pulled away, and they had done what he was aiming for. He grimaced and shook his head, instinctively reaching for his breast pocket to find he left his cigarettes at home.

She watched him for a while, knowing he had something on his mind. "Penny for your thoughts. "Crossing one leg over the over she looked down at her shoes.  
He chuckled at the cliché saying and stepped back so he could take the other white plastic chair set out. "It'd take a lot more than a penny," he sassed back. He sipped on the rum and Coke he'd poured himself, still looking out on the yard. He thoughtfully allowed himself to continue. "I want to be better. I know I'm like, an asshole."

"You can be. I believe in you .." She shrugged, looking back at him. "Anyone can change."

"Maybe," he said to that, frowning behind his solo cup. "I just get angry a lot. Over... stuff." He shrugged back, shoulders stiff. He slouched back into his chair, one arm hanging down lazily and his chin tilting up so he could look at the sky. "And to stop being such a manwhore," he laughed dryly, albeit a little awkwardly.

"Well, since we're being honest. I've not been telling you the truth." She looked up at the sky and bit her lip. "I haven't actually done it with Steve."

He tilted his head towards her slightly to give her a confused side-look. "Why even lie about something like that?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Because I- .. " She paused for a moment, still looking at the sky. "I was embarrassed. I mean I'm almost 18 and still haven't had sex."

"You- That's a dumb thing to be embarrassed about," Billy blurted out honestly along with laughter. He didn't mean for that to come out like he was judging her or something. "Everyone in this town seems more worried about slut shaming than virgin shaming, right? Or will they just be critical of anything?"

"You've seen the girls in our school, they're all bitches who will judge you for anything. Plus, I didn't really know you at the time when I told you .." She sighed, looking back at him.

Billy's lip curled up in a little scowl at the thought. Yeah, he knew those bitchy girls "well." The fact left a sour taste in his mouth. He nodded, meeting Nancy's stare. "Yeah, that's fair." He set his half-empty drink on the concrete of the balcony beside his chair. It was sort of like a revelation coming in for him. No wonder Nancy kept shying away from him- Well, obviously that didn't have to be the only reason for her to do that, but the information still seemed new and important.

"Anyway, got a bigger secret than that to tell me?" She smirked still looking at him. "Or did I win?"

Billy looked down. His foot started to tap, which was proving to be a nervous tick for him. "My old man wails on me sometimes. It's why I didn't wanna go home that one night." He second-guessed himself once he said it. Until then, their honesty hour seemed pretty light-hearted. Shit.

Nancy sat up slowly, frowning. "What? Billy, he hits you? Oh my God .." She looked down quickly, thinking of the night they were out together. "I didn't know, I shouldn't have left .."

"No, you didn't know. Even if you did- And I mean, that night everything was fine. I was late bringing Max home that one time, you know, so..." He pursed his lips, trailing off. He shrugged. Just tried to shrug it off and move on. "It's okay, I can leave soon when the school year is over. I've saved money."

"It's not okay .." She looked back at him, shaking her head slowly. "You gotta report him .."

"No," he blurted out firmly, then repeated himself softer and more collected. "No. He doesn't do it to Max. Susan doesn't work, so he's got to be around. I'm the problem." He picked his drink back up because Boy did he need it now. He'd never told someone this and wasn't sure why he let it slip. He was freaking out internally a little. "Listen, you can't tell anyone. Promise me. It'll do more harm than good."

"You can't just expect me to not tell anyone about your dad abusing you, Billy. It's not right." She fought back, shaking her head.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not that easy. You gotta have proof or whatever or the police can't do anything." And he wasn't willing to show a bunch of bruises or similar to the police. He wasn't ready for it, even if he understood where Nancy was coming from. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't want to make you have to worry about it now."

She slowly looked away, biting her lip. “I’ll always worry. Especially now that I know that you’re .. getting hurt.”  
Billy also stared off at anything else for a while, chewing the inside of his cheek. "So, I guess I won?" he said dumbly, trying to break the tense silence before it settled too thick between them with some sarcasm.(edited)

“I don’t have anything worse to admit I don’t think ..” She sighed, looking back at him and smirked. “I guess I’m just the virgin princess?”

"That isn't even bad. Actually I'd say it's cute. But you get mad when I say princess, so no comment," he said back coyly. He kicked up his feet on the railing. He felt surprisingly comfortable now after getting that off his chest.

“Because it makes me sound like a spoilt brat and I’m not.” She scoffed, crossing her arms which were becoming cold. “So, what do you win then? Do I have to buy you dinner?” She laughed quietly.

Billy rolled his eyes warmly and polished off the rum and coke, crinkling up the plastic cup and letting it rest on his lap. "I didn't know there were prizes involved. But I guess so. It's only fair."

She smiled and sat up straighter. “Exactly.” Looking over the railing she saw a group of people playing a version of 7 minutes in heaven. “Have you done that before?”  
He looked over with her to see what she was talking about. He got the context from two people being closed off in the small tool shed off the garage by the giggling crowd. "Geez, not since like, middle school," he scoffed, raising his eyebrow down at the party goers.

“Well I hope in middle school you weren’t going all the way in a closet, although I’m getting a sense you might have done. I’ve only played it once, didn’t do much. I was still with Steve so I didn’t want to do anything with some random guy.” She shrugged, looking down at her arm which still ached slightly. She knew that there would be a bruise forming tomorrow.

"I really didn't," Billy laughed. Simply teasing playfully, he added, "7 minutes isn't enough time for me." He wagged his tongue at her. He then went a little more serious as he followed her gaze. He reached out and smoothed his hand over her arm softly.

Nancy gave him a small smile and bit her lip. She leaned back in her chair and thought for a while before speaking again. “How much time is enough for you then?” She smirked, wondering what the hell was in her drink that made her ask these kinds of questions. Billy's eyes were soft and settled on her arm where he was smoothing his palm. He glanced up at her face, the way she bit her lip, and laughed once again. It was a little more nervous this time, and he shook his head and rolled his shoulders. "I don't put on a timer or something, Wheeler. Don't tempt me to brag," he teased. He withdrew his hand and glanced back at the people playing the game.

Nancy laughed quietly watching the two red faced teens stumble out of the shed, their shirts all messed up as well as their hair. “Totally not obvious. And brag away, I’ll probably forget what you said in the morning.”

"Forget? C'mon, you can't be that drunk...?" he asked with a slight furrow in his brow. She did look pretty out of it when he first saw her in the kitchen, when- Ugh, he didn't even want to think about that guy. "I'd be pretty hurt if you were just blackout during our bonding time. I've said more than I've ever told anyone else." He put a hand on his heart. It was a joking gesture, but his words were totally sincere. He sat forward his chair, subconsciously licking his lips. "With a virgin like you, I'd be down for going for an hour. More? Nice and slow, y'know? Maybe not even going all the way. Just working them open all night."

She raised her eyebrows. “Wow. I thought you’d be the rough and fast type of guy.” Leaning back in her chair, she looked back at him. “I’ll try and remember, no promises though.”

"Is that what you'd be into?" he found himself asking with a chuckle. He also leaned back, impulsively feeling around his breast pocket again to find nothing there.

“Not really for my first time. I heard it hurts, so ..” She shrugged lightly. “You run out of cigarettes?”

"I forgot them at home," he answered with a shrug and slight frown. Since he didn't have one, he chewed his lip a little instead. He wished the little bit of antsy-ness he felt was just over his lack of nicotine, but really it was over their conversation, thinking about how he wished he could do the things he'd said only to her. He checked his watch. "Isn't your curfew 12?"

“It is. Why what’s the time?” She sighed, not really caring about the curfew. She was too wasted to even think about travelling back home and facing her mom.

"You've still got 20 minutes," he read. His watch said 11:43. He relaxed again with the conversation changing, and tried to clear his head. "Hope you don't get in trouble."

“I don’t care anymore. They shout at me for anything and everything now. Because they’re too fucking unhappy in their relationship, they like to take it out on Mike and I.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “I don’t even want to go home.”

"Hm." The short hum was his only response to that, to show he was still listening. He wasn't the person to ask for parental advice, after all. "You should probably still go home, Nancy. All the beds here are probably gross now and Carol's a bitch. Just sober up, then go back a little late. At least you won't have to face them drunk."

“Well, Jonathan’s here somewhere .. I could go home with him.” She stretched her arms and yawned. “And I’m not that drunk.” That proposal had Billy scowling a bit before he could stop it. "Since when does he come to these kinds of parties?" he scoffed out, rolling his eyes away back out onto the yard. "Guess you could do that."

“He doesn’t usually but I made him come.” She shrugged and looked over at him, smirking slightly. “Jealous?”

He bristled when he felt her eyes on him, forcing a smirk back at her. "Watch it, Wheeler..." he said coyly. "I would've offered mine if it wasn't a shithole so just do what you need to do."

“I know.” She replied quietly. “I probably would’ve said no, anyway. Not because of you but .. I wouldn’t be able to look at your dad.”

Despite his jealousy, Jonathan seemed like a nice enough, trustworthy guy. Sure, the kind of guy Billy was expected to pick on because he was popular and Jonathan was a weirdo, but he wasn't Mr. Track Team. Nancy deserved someone more like him anyway. Billy sighed and let the tightness in his shoulders lessen. "You want to go find him then, so we don't miss him before he leaves?"

“I suppose.” She slowly stood up, moving her hair out of her face. “Are you going to stay?”

Billy also stood, picking up his empty cup. "Yeah. I'll probably stick around. But I'm filling this back up, so I'll go down with you."

“Alright.” She replied, walking back inside the house, pushing past some people in the hallway who were making out against the wall. “God, they’ll do it anywhere.”  
Billy glanced at them, seeming to find it amusing more than anything. He pictured himself kissing Nancy up against a wall, and nearly tripped down the stairs distractedly like an idiot. Thankfully, he just stumbled on the first one and cleared his throat.

Nancy glanced back at him, raising her eyebrows. “You good?” She laughed quietly and continued to walk downstairs, spotting Jonathan at the bottom of them.

"Totally fine," Billy defended quickly, turning up his nose. Smooth, he berated himself. Jonathan appeared to have spotted them also, and seemed to be eyeing them with a very raised brow, considering they were walking down from where all the bedrooms were and horny party goers went.(edited)

“Jonathan!” She called out, rushing over to him and grinning. She stumbled slightly, falling against him. "You enjoying yourself?” She giggled, leaning against him and completely forgetting about Billy behind her. The two boys exchanged narrow looks to one another as Jonathan answered. Billy's lip curled up into a little snarl, his eyes flickering to Nancy against him then back up to Jonathan's face. "Take her home with you," he snapped plainly, not really caring what the other boy had said. He side-stepped them and brushed through the crowd, not looking back. This seemed like a good time to do a keg stand.


	4. Take Me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! This chapter will contain smut! Also unprotected sex which I do not condone! Wrap it up!

The next morning, she walked into her bedroom after Jonathan had dropped her off. Breathing out shakily she groaned at the pain that pulled through her head. She walked over to her window, opening it slightly to get some fresh air.

Billy spent a little under another hour there and probably shouldn't have driven home by the end of the night with the rest of the drinks he had. But he made it at least. Since it was the weekend, he was content with sleeping in. Sleeping off any possible hangover. Hopefully his dad wouldn't make him 'get up and be productive.' They hadn't had a run-in for a week or so, thankfully. But the house was still loud from the man's radio and television from the kitchen, and someone was mowing outside Billy's window. He tried to drown out the sounds with a pillow over his head.

He gave up after a few minutes of tossing and turning, grumpy for being woken up. He'd taken a long shower the night before then crashed onto him bed in just the towel. He sat up to find a pair of boxers. As he did so, he could hear his dad start to raise his voice from the other room. He didn't sound like he was in a good mood, meaning Billy'd make himself scarce that day. He started to throw on some clothes.  
He slipped down the hall and stood by the phone. Neil was just yelling at a sports game on the television. Billy was relieved and annoyed at the same time. He twirled the chord for a while. He was contemplating calling Nancy. He wanted to see if she returned home alright. Would that make him seem desperate? Finally he gave into the temptation and huffed, dialling her number which he knew from Max visiting there. It rang a few times and he wondered who would pick up.

Nancy’s eyes diverted to the small telephone next to her bed which kept ringing. Sitting up slowly she answered it, her voice quiet. “Hello?”

"Nancy?" he said, cupping his hand over the receiver to hopefully drown out some of the noises in his small house. "It's Billy."

“Oh, Hey .. “ She played with the cord slightly. “If you’re calling to ask how I am, I feel like hell. I’m never drinking again.” She laughed quietly. “What are you doing today?”

"Yeah, you got me,. And that's what they all say," he laughed under his breath. He glanced down the hall as Max passed him and stepped into the kitchen for breakfast. She watched him as he talked. "Uh, nothing really. I just wanted to make sure you still knew you owe me food," he joked.

“Well, I’m staying in bed all day today and not doing anything. You could come over if you want, my parents aren’t home and Mike is at Will’s. “ She laid back down, moving the phone slightly. “I’ll order pizza?”

That definitely sounded a thousand times better than sticking around his house. Max made a face at him when she managed to make out who's muffled voice it was on the line. He stuck his tongue out at her and she flipped him off in response. "What time? Pizza in the morning?" he laughed, leaning up on the door frame. Honestly that sounded like perfect hangover food though. "If you call it in, I can pick it up on my way there."

“I’ll order it now, see you soon.” She hung up, dialling the number for the pizza parlour around the corner, ordering a large pizza. After placing the order, she stood up and looked in the mirror. The silk pink robe hugged her body tightly.

Billy blinked as the line went dead. Damn, he slept on his wet hair last night and it was all messy. He didn't have one of his best button-ups washed. He would have to make do. They were just hanging out at her house, so it wasn't like he had to get gussied up. The prospect of spending the day with her had him in a good mood, so he ruffled up Max's hair like a good brother (for once) before he strode off. She cursed after him in annoyance. He put on sweatpants and a fitted t-shirt. He spritzed cologne on his usual places and tied up his hair in a messy bun.

Nancy walked downstairs quickly, getting bottles of water out of the fridge and finding some chips to pour into a bowl. Turning the tv on, she sat down on the sofa flipping through the different channels.

He took a few minutes to stare at himself in the mirror before he needed to get the pizza on time. He slipped out of the house with his jacket without a word. He picked up their food and was knocking at Nancy's front door within the hour.

Nancy stood up and walked over to the front door, opening it. She smiled at him and stepped out of the way to let him in. “Hey ..” She wrapped the bow tighter on her dressing gown. “You can put it on the table.” Billy tried not to stare. He was leaned up against the bricks, balancing the pizza box on one hand. He couldn't help but made a crude joke. He just really couldn't, the opportunity was so perfect. "I feel like I rented a porno like this once." He did as she said, stepping in and setting it down. He shrugged off his jacket and left it on the rack near the door. "How come your parents are out?"

She rolled her eyes, closing the door after him. “I couldn’t be bothered to change, leave me alone. And they’ve gone on a road trip with Holly somewhere, I don’t know.” She shrugged, leaning against the counter. Billy snooped through a couple cabinets before finding the plates, sliding one over to her. He wore a soft amused smile. He nodded towards the pizza box, where two VHS tapes were stacked on top as well. "I rented a couple 'cuz I didn't know what you had. Didn't know what you'd like though." There was Nightmare on Elm Street and Terminator. "Hopefully not chick flicks."

Nancy glanced at them and raised her eyebrows. “Fun.” She smirked slightly, taking a slice and putting it on her plate. “I should probably change, huh?”

Billy chewed his lip. Don't stare again. "Uhhh, I'm not going to say I mind, but if you want to..." He took a piece for himself and picked up one of the tapes with his free hand.  
She rolled her eyes and smirked, walking over to the sofa. “I’m too lazy.”

Bless. Billy joined her, setting the tapes down on the coffee table. He chewed a mouthful of pizza. His hangover wasn't as bad as Nancy's, but the pizza was still a godsend. "So, did you get yelled at by mommy and daddy dearest?" She sat down on the sofa, rubbing a hand through her hair. “Mm hm. But I just went straight to my room.” She shrugged lightly and looked over at the tv. “Do you mind if I lie down?” She put the plate back on the coffee table and looked back at him. Her hair fell slightly in front of her eyes.(edited)

"Nah, go ahead," he said with a shrug. He lightly tossed one of the side pillows at her if she wanted to use it. One foot was kicked up on the coffee table and he was slumped back on the plush sofa with his arm over the side, watching what was already playing on the T.V. "Did you want me to move to the recliner or something?"

“No it’s fine.” She smiled slightly, patting the cushion and laid down, her legs on top of his. Turning to face the tv, she yawned lightly. “What movie first?” He breathed contently, absentmindedly resting the hand not slung over the couch on Nancy's calf. "I've been wanting to see Nightmare on Elm Street for a while."

“Sounds scary.” She smirked slightly, glancing at him.

"Gonna be too scared? When it's broad daylight outside?" he teased, matching her smirk. He patted her leg and lifted them up for a moment so he could stand and put the tape in.

“Hey, killers could come in the morning.” She smirked, shaking her head and fixing the gown which had ridden up slightly.

Once the movie was popped in and the opening credits had started with ominous music playing, Billy made his way back to where he was sitting before. He flopped back down and guided Nancy's legs back across his lap. "I'll fuck 'em up first," he snickered.

Nancy smiled and turned her attention to the tv again. Her hand rested on her thigh, circling patterns on the silky material. “I usually don’t watch horrors.”

He stared at the television set, but his eyes would occasionally glance back at Nancy's hand circling over the bottom hem of the gown distractedly. His hand twitched on her calf, tempted to slide up and meet hers at her thigh. While her attention was on the screen he also stole looks at Nancy's pretty face. "I'll protect you, Wheeler," he continued to tease.

“You’re an ass.” She chuckled, shaking her head. Her fingers kept rubbing the material, probably some sort of nervous habit to keep her hands busy as she watched the movie. “If I scream it’s not my fault.”

Billy was sort of eager to see that: Nancy getting jumpscared. It'd undoubtedly be cute. It made the urge to clutch her hand and still her stemming fingers way more tempting. He wondered if he could get away with it, having the excuse of just being scared by the movie... From the onset of the film, there was a creepy nightmare sequence with Freddy Krueger chasing a typical horror flick girl. Billy slid his hand up Nancy's leg and reached her hand, threading their fingers together and holding her hand still above the fabric of her nightgown.

Nancy glanced at their hands and squeezed his gently. She turned her focus back to the movie as the chase continued. Her heart was beating fast, and it wasn’t just because of the horror film. She jumped slightly once Krueger popped up on the screen, making a small noise. "Fuck."

Billy squeezed their hands together. His thumb brushed her skin back and forth when she jumped. He'd watched plenty of these kinds of movies even since he was a younger kid; they didn't really faze him. He enjoyed them really, even if for this one he was a bit distracted by stealing glances at Nancy . He was tickled that she didn't pull away from his touch.

She laughed quietly into the cushion, blushing profusely. "Sorry, that really scared me." Her hand still stayed in his, enjoying the feeling of his thumb. It comforted her in a way. She stretched her legs slightly, clicking them.

"I didn't notice," he murmured with a sly little grin. "Yeah though, that was one ugly motherfucker." He shifted a little on the sofa, slumping more to try getting comfy. The movie continued into the typical exposition after that opening scene, the intense music and killer off the screen momentarily. But Billy kept stroking with his thumb.

"Hm. Bet you didn't." She smirked, sitting up slightly. She looked at him for a while before turning her attention back to the movie, crossing her arms over her chest.

Billy could feel her eyes on him and it made him want to squirm a lot more than the movie did. Was she expecting something, or was he just overthinking? His hand slipped back down onto his lap, his fingers drumming over the Hawkins High sweatpants. He hated being this hesitant about it. About making a move. It wasn't like he was normally like that. He raised his arm again, moving it over the back of the couch, then resting it around Nancy's shoulders.

Nancy glanced at his arm, her eyes still fixed on the tv set. As another jump scare happened she leaned against him, her heart still racing. "How can you stay so calm?" She whispered, looking back up at him.

He settled into this new position, her pressed up against his side. It was pretty comfortable, and Nancy was so close and under his arm, so he was satisfied for the next little while. "I dunno, they just get you spooked with the loud noises. All horror movies just seem to do that." He laughed softly.

Nancy sighed and continued to watch the movie. "I think I prefer my chick flicks, honestly. Where's Rob Lowe when you need him?" She chuckled quietly, still leaning against him. She curled her legs to the side and bit her lip as she glanced back at him. Billy rolled his eyes in amusement. "Tell you what, since I picked this one, you can put on whatever corny one you want next and I won't say a word. Cross my heart." He looked at her at the same time, their eyes meeting not too far apart in the least. "Is there something on my face?" He fluttered his lashes coyly.

"Yeah, beauty." She joked sticking out her tongue. "Deal. And, why is your hair up today?"  
He blinked at her and chewed the inside of his cheek, tearing his gaze away. God forbid, that got him flustered. "Oh. 'Cuz it looks like shit. I slept on it wet." He'd forgotten about that.

"Oh, right." She smirked slightly at him. "I prefer it down on you."

"Worried I look prettier than you like this?" he gasped. He reached up and took it down, running the fingers of his free hand through it to smooth it down a little. "Don't worry, you look way better either way."

Nancy smiled slightly. "Your hair is so much more volumized than mine what the fuck." She moved a strand behind his ear and bit her lip again.

Billy squinted at the movie. He hardly had any idea what was going on in it anymore. He was too focused on being close to Nancy, and her touching his hair. He tilted his head towards her touch with a comfortable sigh. "Maybe I should be in a L'Oreal commercial," he snickered.

"Maybe." She chuckled, taking her hand back slowly. "I should probably wash mine, actually."

He looked back at her as the hand left, longing burning in his eyes. The arm around her squeezed softly, drawing her in closer so he could rest his chin atop her head. "I think it looks fine. Feels soft," he muttered, closing his eyes for a moment.

She breathed out slowly, closing her eyes too. Relaxing against him, she realised she was almost on his lap. "Shit sorry .."

"'Bout what?" he asked, genuinely having no idea what she was sorry about. As far as he was concerned, they weren't close enough. He held her tight, feeling so relaxed he might've just drifted off to sleep. He couldn't recall ever feeling so relaxed in someone's company. He usually kept people at arm's length. He definitely didn't do much cuddling. But this was nice. He put his other arm around her as well, holding her around her front and drawing her in. The movie had another jump scare, which actually got him a little that time and made his eyes snap open. "Shit."

She started laughing as soon as he got scared, leaning against him. "Oh my God I just felt you jump and that scared me." She continued to laugh quietly, her hands rested on his which were holding her front.

"I didn't jump. Don't know what you're talking about," he defended stubbornly. His grin was evident in his voice. Now that she pretty much was in his lap for real, he rested his chin on one of her shoulders as he watched the violent scene. One of the main characters was getting killed off as a result of the jump scare, and the amount of blood was just laughable and totally impossible.

"You totally did." She smirked, looking away from the scene. "I don't like blood. Ew."

"It looks so fake," he laughed near her ear, the breathy sound making his toned chest shake against her. "Seriously, it's just corn syrup they colored red."

"Oh because you're an expert of blood?" She smirked, shaking her head. "Girls see more blood than guys, anyway."

"No. That makes me sound like a fucking psychopath, jeez," he snorted. He scrunched up his nose a little. "Yeah, okay. Fair enough, not gonna argue that one." One of her brunette curls slipped from behind her ear against his cheek. Reflexively, he turned his face against her and nosed the hair away again. He seemed to realize what he was doing after the fact, stilling up against her ear. He didn't want to scare her off, because sitting like this was nice. "Hey," he started thoughtfully.

"Hello." She replied, still watching the movie but shifted slightly in his lap to edge closer to him.

He felt her shifting over his lap very clearly, and bit the inside of his cheek hard. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "I don't want to be with anyone else. I haven't been since like-- I like you. Just doing stuff like this."

Nancy stared at the screen, biting her lip. "You do?"  
Billy glanced back at it for a flash as well, since the main girl was shrieking. He sure did have great timing, didn't he? Sarcasm intended. "Yeah. I'm sorry I was just... you know, at first."

Nancy slowly took his hands off of her and stood up, turning around to look back at him. "You like me?" She spoke quietly.  
Billy breathed in deep, his hands slumping into his now-empty lap and picking at the fabric of his pants. "Shit, yeah. I wouldn't be here if I didn't, or told you all that stuff last night." He frowned a little and chewed his lip. He waited in tense anticipation for her to say something, or God forbid walk away somewhere.

She climbed back on him, straddling him and looking into his eyes. "Say it."

Billy stared at her hard, his mouth hanging open softly with surprise. His gaze flickered between her eyes and lips. He slowly reached a hand up and touched the side of her face. "I like you, Wheeler," he said with a low and tense voice, feeling extremely vulnerable in a very new unfamiliar way.

Nancy went in for it quickly, kissing him passionately on the mouth. Her hands cupped the sides of his face gently.

Billy's eyes widened and blinked. He was stunned, but also flooded with relief. He responded to the kiss instantly by pressing back against her lips. There was no tongue, but his hands did rest on her hips over the silky fabric and his eyes slid shut.

She slowly pulled away and trailed kisses down his neck, her warm breath hitting against it.  
"Nancy," he breathed out, tilting his head back to give her full access to his neck. His fingertips squeezed her body softly. Otherwise, he just laid back and let her do as she wished, and soaked in that this was really happening.

She sucked gently on his neck, making sure to leave a mark. Pulling away she looked back at him, biting her lip and ground once against him, just like what she had heard from overhearing girls talk about 'teasing their man'. "I want you, Billy." She whispered, grinding against him for the second time.

Billy groaned and rested his head back against the couch at the grind of her hips. At her words, his eyes flew open. He tilted his face back to look at her and read her expression intently. "What do you want, Nancy?" he asked, grinning a little and playing dumb.

"You know .." She breathed out, looking at him. "I want you. I want you to take me."

His grin faltered as his heart beat wildly. Her words rang through his head and he grasped onto them in disbelief. He reached up and brushed a hand through her hair. "I've wanted you so fucking bad," he whispered through his teeth, pressing the words right up against her lips. The hand still at her hip dipped under her nightgown and dragged up her side. "You can tell me when to stop. I just- Want to touch you." She smiled at him, nodding slowly and breathing in as he touched her side. "Okay .." She could feel her stomach tighten slightly. "I'm not wearing anything underneath, so .." She grinned cheekily, kissing him.

His eyebrows raised. "Serious? This whole time--" His words were cut short by her kiss, which he exhaled into deeply. She was trying to kill him. He kissed her back deeply as his hand smoothed up higher and cupped her breast. His other brushed under the fabric to her thigh and gripped. He rutted up against her, the sweatpants not doing much to hide the feeling of his growing arousal.

She whimpered softly to the new touch at her breast, her hands slowly trailing down his body to the hem of his shirt. “I thought you would’ve known, the way you’ve been staring at my boobs this morning.” She smirked.

He peeked an eye open at her and flashed a daring smirk. Shit, and he thought he'd been being sneaky about it. "Maybe... But here?" His thumb brushed at the skin of her thigh, a reminder of how very close he was to touching her panty line- or at least, if it would've been there, he'd be touching it. He glanced down at her hands at his shirt hem. "You can take it off if you want." She nodded, lifting it up and over his head. Throwing it on the other side of the couch. “We should probably go upstairs. I don’t know how much longer my parents will be, they could come in at any moment.”

He removed his hands from under Nancy's nightgown to help get his shirt off. "Fuck, that'd be awkward," he said in agreement. He snapped his arms around her and and stood up, holding her against his bare torso. The movie at its climax was all but forgotten to him. He stepped around the couch, still guiding her in his arms.

She wrapped her legs around him, holding onto his shoulders. “My bedroom is the first door on the right.”

"Alright." he muttered, a soft smirk pressing into her neck as he carried her. To support her weight, he put his hands high up on her thighs, basically groping her. She was really light, he noted appreciatively. He started up the stares carefully, feeling for each step with his foot since he was focused on mouthing Nancy's neck rather than looking where he was going. Once they reached the stairs, she tapped him to put her down. “I need to get a towel from the bathroom.”

He grunted against her hot skin but obeyed, dutifully lowering her to her feet then straightening up and looking down at her expectantly. He leaned in and gave her temple a kiss before he flopped down on her fluffy bed on his back, an arm behind his head.

Nancy walked into the bathroom, picking up a towel from the rack and went over to open a cabinet. She searched through the different boxes of medicine and bit her lip. Closing the cabinet she walked back into her bedroom. “Do you have a condom?”

Billy sat up a little higher on the headboard. He felt around in the sports team sweatpants, but wore a sceptical frown. The one damn time. At least it showed he didn't come there expecting this. "Down in my car. I can go run down and get it," he offered. He patted the section of bed next to him encouragingly. "Just come here and let me touch you for a little," he said with a soft grin.

She rolled her eyes playfully at his grin and sat down next to him, leaving the towel at the side. “I’m here.”

He pushed himself off the headboard and turned his body towards Nancy, so his arms were on either side of her body and he faced her. He kept his half-lidded eyes on hers as he reclaimed her lips with a smile, kissing slow but deep this time. She smiled through the kiss, closing her eyes. Her hands rested on his shoulders as he deepened the kiss.

Kneeling across from her, Billy simply dipped a knee between her legs to nudge them apart. The fabric of her nightgown rode up on her thighs the more they spread, just barely stopping before fully exposing her lower body. He slid a hand up her bare thigh, letting her be fully of it creeping upward between her legs as he continued to hold the kiss. Two fingers stopped right between her legs at her most-sensitive spot, moving in a tight, testing circle over the silk.

Nancy breathed out shakily, feeling the heat between her legs intensify as his hand moved down. "Billy." She whispered, her head hitting the headboard. He hummed low and from deep from his throat in response, moving his head down and placing wet, suckling kisses on her neck. He made sure he didn't suck hard enough to leave a mark in an obvious place, but it was pretty tempting when he got lower towards her collarbone. He reached his other hand behind her head and threaded into her hair to keep it from bumping against the wooden headboard again. "Nancy..." He crooked his fingers over her clit like he was beckoning, feeling a hint of dampness forming under the fabric.

She whimpered quietly, bucking her hips towards him. "Fuck .." Her heart raced as she looked at him, biting her lip. "Please .." Her hand moved down from his shoulder to grasp her own breast.

"Easy," he soothed, teeth grazing and nibbling her defined collarbone, then planting a kiss there. He was practically purring. He brushed the clothing higher up and out of the way, sliding his hand back over her now with nothing in between. "You're getting so wet, baby. Fuck," he breathed.  
She breathed out slowly, whimpering his name again as he nibbled. “Take it off .. “ She gestured to her gown which was irritating her slightly.

He didn't protest or say a word- just simply did as he was told and tugged the little front bow loose, then dragged it off of her body. He cursed again and nudged her off the headboard, more onto the pillows laying down. He moved from her collarbone to her chest and sucked one of her nipples into his mouth.

Nancy gripped the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair. She breathed out shakily and moaned quietly. “Fuck ..”

He let out a lazy moan, the sound vibrating against her chest as he swirled his tongue. "Pull it, I like it," he murmured, pulling away just barely, still breathing hot air against her. He touched her again down below, fingers sliding through her folds and pausing over her entrance.

She tugged on it as his fingers slid through her folds, her hips buckling again. “Oh ..”

"Yeah, ugh," he groaned shortly, pulling back against her tugging grip and rubbing himself through his pants. He peered up at her face, watching closely as he slipped a finger inside, getting a little past his first knuckle until he hit her maidenhead.

Nancy winced slightly from the unfamiliar gesture, one hand clutching the sheets she shifted slightly. “Sorry, you can continue ..” She nodded at him.

"It's okay," Billy said reassuringly, planting a kiss on her breast. He chewed his lip and focused. He really didn't want to cause Nancy pain. He'd try to make it as little to non-existent as possible. Maybe he could distract her and outweigh it with pleasure. With that in mind, he lowered his head downward across he flat stomach, keeping his finger still inside her.

She glanced down at him, biting her lip. "What are you doing?" She tensed slightly, wincing again.

He stroked her clit slowly with the thumb of the same hand, his finger twitching inside. "Trust me," he said, his husky breath now tickling over her pubic area. He withdrew his finger slightly before sliding it back against her hymen, repeating the motion as he brought his lips down around where his thumb had been, and repeated the same circular motion with his tongue.

Gasping loudly, she gripped his hair again tugging it lightly. "Oh my God .." She threw her head back, holding back a moan.

He glanced up at her quickly before he focused wholly on what he was doing, working his lips and tongue against her just like he had when they were kissing, lapping with his tongue languidly. He closed his eyes and groaned at the tug, the vibrations right up against her. He poked in the tip of his second finger.

Nancy let out quiet moan, still tugging on his hair. "Billy .. Fuck, that feels good."

He grinned against her, seeming very happy to hear it and eating her out with more enthusiasm. His second finger joined the first completely and they moved in and out together.

The pleasure seemed to outweigh the pain as she arched her back slightly, letting out quiet but breathless moans. She could feel the sensation becoming stronger as she moved her hips against his mouth. He stroked her thigh, dragging his tongue up and down between her folds in time with her moving hips. He took a deep breath and pushed his fingers deeper. They breached, popping her cherry, and Billy kissed the inside of her thigh apologetically. He curled his fingers inside her to find her g-spot, but went a little slower if there was any possible new discomfort.

She winced and let out a quiet hiss but kept moving her hips forward, her breaths loud. She adjusted to his fingers for a moment then looked down at him. “You can go faster .. “

Billy looked up at her and then nodded quickly. Dutifully he pumped his fingers into her and sucked until his jaw was sore from working against her, but he was totally loving it. He groaned and shoved a hand into his pants to give himself some relief, unable to neglect that any longer.

As she finally reached her peak, she gasped and shut her eyes as she rode out her orgasm on his mouth. “Billy ..” she breathed out, opening them to look down at him.

He felt a little extra surge of wetness well up against his lips and felt her body twitch. His hips jerked forward a little. He broke away to curse and catch his breath. He looked back at her and gave a lazy smirk, wiping his mouth with his forearm. "Good?"

She pulled him on top of her, kissing him lightly on the mouth. “Amazing.” She mumbled against his lips.

Billy kissed back eagerly and pressed his hips down against her, grinding his clothed hard-on between her legs. "You are." He paused and pulled back a little to look into her eyes. "You done...? Or should I go get the..."

“I’ll get a pill tomorrow.” She replied quickly, stroking his cheek.

He licked his lip subconsciously, eyes hooding a little more. "Fuck, okay," he said, trying to contain the excitement and anticipation in his voice. He leaned his head into her hand. He reached between them, to his waistband, and started to push it down at the front. He was going commando, which quickly became obvious as his arousal bobbed free.

She sat up slightly, tucking the towel underneath her. “Just in case ..” She watched as he lowered his waist band, biting her lip at the sight.

He nodded. Probably a good idea. He followed her stare and of course took the chance to grin cheekily. He touched her leg, urging it up onto his waist. His body pressed right down against hers, his member dragging right up against her wet heat. His head glided over her entrance tortuously. "I'm going to put it in now," he warned, searching her face. "Okay?"

Nancy slowly nodded blushing slightly at the fact he watched her stare. Shifting her leg slightly, she looked at him, her hands on his shoulders. “Okay ..”

"You're so beautiful, Nancy." He held himself at the base, tilting the tip to line up, and pushing forward. "Wanted you so bad."

She gasped lightly, gripping onto his shoulders. The familiar sting came back but it wasn’t as painful. Smiling warmly to him she kissed him in response.

He muffled a moan into the kiss, his brows knitting tightly as he eased in achingly slow. She was tight. Really tight, unsurprisingly. He gave a shallow roll of his hips. Nancy closed her eyes, slowly adjusting herself to his size. After a minute, she opened her eyes again and looked up at him pulling away from the kiss. ”Don’t worry about hurting me, it’s supposed to. Just do what you need to do.” She leaned up to kiss his forehead and laid back.

He reached up and stroked her face. Wordlessly, he pushed deeper and bottomed out inside. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment as he exhaled. He honestly could've just stayed like that, basking in their contact and what they were actually, really doing. But the temptation to move was just so much stronger. He drew back out halfway, then repeated the motion, setting up a nice, steady but gradual rhythm.

She whimpered quietly and closed her eyes again, breathing small moans against his ear. Her nails scratched his back as he thrusted in deeper.

Billy pressed his forehead into the pillow and hummed deeply. His back arched towards her scratching nails then he hooped an arm around her waist, reeling her body in impossibly close. He ground his hips into her.

She buried her face in the crook of his neck, breathing heavily. "Fuck .."

Still holding her close, his other hand hiked Nancy's leg up higher on his hip. He withdrew much farther this time, until his cockhead nearly slipped out from inside, before pushing back in a dragging thrust. "Yeah, *fuck," he agreed ruggedly. "You feel so good."

Nancy smiled lightly and kissed his shoulder, looking at him. "I love you .." She searched his face, biting her lip. Maybe it was a bit too soon, a bit too eager. "Sorry, fuck .."

He sucked in a short gasp of air, caught off guard by the declaration for sure. It would've sent him running like a criminal coming from anyone else. He stilled and looked at her, looking a bit stunned, and maybe even scared at the idea. Thankfully he knew not to keep her doubting herself long. "Hey, don't be sorry." He chewed his lip, feeling his heart race. "I love you too."

She smiled up at him and kissed him passionately. Wrapping her arms around him, she ground her hips against him harder. He felt-- relieved. Relieved that he responded right, meaning every word. He grunted into her mouth a little from pleasure as her body ground against him. With a new burst of fervour spurred on from the intimate moment, he gripped her thighs and angled into her at a quick pace. She breathed out shakily as their skin slapped together, still vigorously moving her hips at the same quicker pace. Her moans got louder, gripping harder on his hair.

He brought up a hand to cup her breast, and his face down to mouth her nipple and moan against it. He rocked into her body steadily. When heat formed started to pool in his stomach and groin, he reached down and flicked her sensitive bundle of nerves with his thumb. She gasped and gripped his hair. “Oh God ..” she titled her head back on the pillow and kept her hips moving at his pace.

He let out a little muffled growl against her nipple. Very carefully, he nibbled there and squeezed his hand a little harder. "Nancy," he breathed out, his hips moving a little more jerkily. "Gonna cum for me again?" He swirled his thumb in time with their bodies rolling against each other. He tried to bring her pleasure in multiple sensitive places at once, even with his voice talking low and dirty. "Want you to cum around my cock. Wish I could cum in you. I'll get a condom next time so I can, and fuck you 'til your legs feel like jelly." He sucked a hickey above her breast and thrust in sharply. "How's that sound?"

Nancy moaned in response as she felt her walls tighten, the heat sensation below grew stronger as she screamed out in his shoulder. “Fuck ..” She breathed out as her orgasm rode down. "Yeah," he hissed out with some curses, feeling her walls flutter around him. He slowed his rubbing thumb as she came down. He savoured a couple more hard thrusts before he absolutely couldn't hold back anymore. He pulled away and aimed himself towards the towel. He breathed shakily as he released, staring down at her with glassed-over eyes.

She looked at him and gave him a small smile, laughing quietly. “Good?” Billy blinked back to his senses and huffed out a laugh, still breathless and husky. "Yeah. Really good." He flopped down beside her on his side and drew her in close. He propped his head up on his arm and rubbed slow circles into her back. "You okay?"

Nancy leaned against him, smiling at him. “I’m good, bit sore but good ..” She kissed his cheek and rested her head on his shoulder.

He closed his eyes, feeling extremely content, more than he had in quite a while. He nuzzled into her hair and closed his eyes, breathing her in for a while. He probably could've fallen asleep like that. He spoke up to keep himself awake. "I love you, I mean it."

“I love you too ..” She whispered, closing her eyes and breathing out slowly. “Sorry, I’m just .. tired ..”

Billy opened his eyes so he could glance around and spot the blanket that was all kicked-up and ruffled at their feet. He shifted down to grab it then returned quickly, pulling it over her. "Wanna sleep like this?" There was the slight bit of paranoia of her parents returning to find them napping naked, but hey, he was a light sleeper and would probably hear them getting too close.

“My door is locked, they won’t come in ..” she mumbled against him, slowly falling asleep.

He uttered a very quiet "Okay," since he could already sense her dozing off. He carefully tugged the towel out from under her and wadded it up, letting it fall beside the bed. He put his arm back over her softly and closed his eyes, taking just a few short minutes longer to fade away.

 

\-------

Nancy woke up a few hours later seeing that it was quite dark outside. She rolled over slowly and sat up, wincing slightly. “Oh, fuck .. Billy?” She shook him lightly. “Billy you have to go ..” Billy's brows knitted together and he grumbled a bit as he stirred. He groggily looked at her, then behind her at the window. "Shit," he snapped, shoving himself up quickly. He was fucked, so very fucked. He didn't say he'd be out this long. He hadn't expected for them to sleep that long. "Window?-- My stuff's downstairs."

Nancy’s eyes widened and put on her gown. “Fuck my parents have probably seen your shirt .. “ She got out of the bed and opened her door. “You’re going to have to go out the window, I’ll chuck your stuff out to you.”

He was torn because he didn't want to leave Nancy and definitely didn't want to go home, but also didn't want to face Nancy's parents either, when it was pretty damn obvious what they'd been doing. His shirt, his parked car, and the locked door... He tugged on his sweats and looked at her with a tight frown. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get you in trouble." He stepped forward and pecked her lips. He ached for more, but knew he needed to hurry, so he moved for the window.

“It’s fine ..” She sighed, watching him. “I’ll see you tomorrow ..” And with that, she walked out of her room, running downstairs to see her mother holding Billy’s shirt. “That’s uh, that’s mine ..” She gulped, taking the shirt from her and running over to the front door.

Billy's coat was still on the rack near the entrance, containing his wallet and keys. He clambered out the window, cursing under his breath because it was fucking cold and all he had on were sweatpants. He saw Mike staring at him from the road on his way back from Will's. They exchanged awkward glares, then Nancy's younger brother curled up his lip in disgust and rolled his eyes, riding his bike around to the other side of the house. Well, that was awkward. Billy probably would have laughed if he wasn't going home late.(edited)

Nancy grabbed his coat from the hook and opened the door, staring at Mike. “What the hell are you doing out this late? Get inside.” She rolled her eyes and walked out over to Billy, giving him his shirt and coat.

Billy glanced warily back at where Nancy walked from, half-expecting an enraged papa bear to be behind her with a shotgun- Happened once before, really didn't want to relive it. He took the items, simply putting on the jacket over his bare torso. "Thanks, beautiful," he said with a little smirk, but there was earnest warmth in his eyes.(edited)

“Get out of here.” She smirked, pushing him lightly. “My dad is out, luckily.”

"Thank God," he laughed, grabbing her hand gently as she pushed him. With his hold on it, he pulled her in for a quick kiss. "Sweet dreams," he murmured before releasing her grip and slinking to his car before Mrs. Wheeler could come out looking for them.

She smiled, rolling her eyes and walked back into her house. She scoffed at Mike glaring at her. "What?" Walking last him and upstairs into her room, she picked up the towel quickly and put it with the rest of her clothes which needed washing.

Billy drove home fast, his fingers tapping anxiously on the wheel. Even if he was worried, at least part of him felt super happy, looking back on his day with Nancy.


	5. Stay With Me

The next day, Nancy sat in the school library looking through some notes she made the previous week for her chemistry exam. Glancing around the room, she leaned back in her chair and sighed. She just couldn’t focus. Billy, however, really got into it with Neil when he got home that night, but luckily it was just yelling and a slap. It was nothing he'd have to come in with bruises and make up some story about a fight to his friends, or see concern on Nancy's face over. Still, he wasn't much in the mood for talking to anyone but her. He breezed through the halls, avoiding his usual hang out spots.

Billy figured he'd find her there. He had seen her studying in the library countless times before they'd ever even spoken, when he slipped away from his douche friends and checked out books (but not like he read for fun or anything...). He slid into the chair next to her, leaning his arm on the table. "Whatcha working on?"

She looked up at him and smirked slightly. "Chemistry. I have a test next period. Although, nothing is going in my brain."

Billy sucked his necklace into his mouth and pressed it around with his tongue. Since he couldn't satisfy his oral fixation with cigarettes within the school's walls, it was another habit of his. "Mm," he hummed around it, leaning closer to look over her notes. "And why's that?" he asked innocently, grinning with the little pendant between his teeth.

"You." She looked down at her notes again and smiled. "My mom's pretty pissed."

"Yeah, oops. I'm sure she'll warm back up to me. I'm such a polite guy to her after all." He dropped the charm from his mouth and propped his chin up on his fist. He looked at her face as she looked at her notes. "This is pretty fucking cheesy, but I want to give you something."

She sat up, raising her eyebrows. "Give me something? What for?"

Billy actually appeared sort of defensive and flustered about it for a moment as he dug around in his pocket. He didn't typically do the whole 'dating' gestures, like giving the girl a Letterman jacket or something, but this was his attempt at one. "You don't have to wear it," he shrugged as he brought out her hand palm up and put the other earring that matched the one he liked to wear in his left ear.

Nancy looked down at it and frowned. "Where's the other one?"

He tilted his head slightly, but luckily brought the other one with it and dangled it in front of her face, before slipping it through the pierce in his ear.

"Right, thanks." She smirked slightly, slipping it in her pocket. "Do you mind dropping me to the store after school?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't mention it, Wheeler," he said with a little grin. He spoke a little lower, just to be extra sure no one could listen in on them. "For the pill? I can help you buy it, you know."

“No, it’s fine I can afford it.” She took a sip of water and looked at him.

Billy shrugged and leaned back in the chair. "Okay. But yeah, I can take you." He glanced at the clock to see how much time they had before class. "You think you're gonna get any more studying done, or should we go make out behind that bookshelf?" he half-joked lowly, grinning like such a typical boy.

“Leave me alone.” She smirked, hitting him with her book jokingly. “I really have to pass this test.”

He fake whined and bumped her shoulder with his softly. "Okay, okay. I'll totally let you focus now," he promised, though he still seemed to be dripping with smugness. "I took Chemistry last semester. Do you need help with anything?"

“Did you pass?” She sighed, looking at him and smirked. “If you say a C I’m walking out of here.”

"I always pass," Billy defended, turning up his nose. "Would get my ass whooped if I didn't. I made a B in there because I fucking hate chemistry."

“Well, that’s great but I’d rather study alone. I can concentrate better but thank you ..” She smiled at him.

"Alright. I'll catch you later then. Good luck." He smoothed a hand over her knee softly before he pushed himself up.

“See you” She nodded, looking back down at her notes and started to focus.

\--- 

A few hours later after school, She stood in the store looking on the shelf at all of the boxes, unsure of what brand to get. Billy didn't go into the same aisle as her, but hung around nearby, since he was her ride. He was messing with the 'try-me' buttons on kids toys that made the little action figures screech.

Nancy sighed and picked up a box, walking over to the counter. As she paid, she looked over at Steve who was looking over at her funny. Biting her lip she took the box and walked over to Billy. "Let's go." He looked over at her with a blink. "Alright." He put his hands in his pockets and started to walk. He made eye contact with Steve, who he hadn't even noticed until that point. He gave him a narrow look, but didn't try to start anything.

She opened the car door and got inside the passengers side, strapping the seatbelt on and placing the box on her lap.

"You guys still on good terms, or what? You and Harrington?" he asked as he turned on the car. He picked up the box and turned it around in his hands, reading it curiously. "He looks at me like he really wants to kick my ass now," he snickered, not seeming against the idea. "I'd say you got him back for that party."

“I haven’t spoken to him properly. I should, though .. Clear the air.” She looked over at him. “You good, nosy?” She smirked, taking back the box.

"I'm great. I got to see Harrington's pissed-off face," he laughed. He started to drive in the direction of Nancy's neighbourhood. Once cruising, his hand moved from the gear shift to her thigh casually as he drove. He just liked the contact.

“I don’t even know how these work. How long after sex do you have to take one? Do you take one or two?” She frowned, looking at the back of the box.

"Uhhh," he said with a slight frown. "I think the box said it works best within 24 to 48 hours."

“95% effective.” She slipped it in her bag to hide from her parents. “Well, lets just hope it works.”

He pulled up to the curb in front of her house. "Well I mean, that's if you were even actually pregnant, and I pulled out, so," he reasoned. "I wouldn't worry about it." He nodded up towards her house. "Guess I don't need to go in 'cus they're mad, right?"

“Yeah, I suppose.” She looked over at the house and back at him. “I’m grounded for at least the rest of this month, so what do you think?“ She smirked slightly, leaning forward to kiss him.

"Seriously? Seems sort of... too long," he huffed, sounding disappointed. He figured she probably wasn't allowed out either in that case. He also leaned in, giving her a kiss. "Now go to your room, young lady," he mock-scolded with a smirk.

"You could always sneak in through my window, though." She shrugged, getting out of the car. and walked to the front door. "See you!"

"I'll be sure to hit you up on that. About time I crawl in instead of out of it," he called after her coyly. He would sometime soon, but for now he had to pick up Max from the arcade.

He gave it a couple days, even if he would have been content with leaving his house for the comfort of hers for each one of them. He still looked at her from across the hall and waggled his eyebrows if he caught her looking back, or he would brush a strand of her hair as he walked by her standing at her locker. People were clearly noticing something was up between the two of them, but had yet to try starting rumours again. Billy didn't flirt so innocently with anyone else in that way, so it had to be something. Late in the evening of the second day, a tapping came to Nancy's window.

Nancy stirred slightly in her sleep, frowning she rolled over to face the window and looked at Billy. She let out a small sigh and sat up, walking over to open the window. “I’m ill.”

The moon was directly behind him, so a shadow was cast over Billy's face and it was hard to see, but he had a fresh black eye and trickle of blood running from his left nostril. "I'll take my chances," he laughed dryly.

She rolled her eyes and stepped back to let him climb in. Getting back into her bed she sat up against her headboard, pulling the covers over herself.

He pulled himself through the window, putting his feet to the floor quietly. He sniffed some of the blood back up into his nose and then wiped it with the back of his hand. He looked tired. "Are your parents asleep?"

Nancy looked up at him and frowned. "Yeah, did you get into another fight again?"

He looked back at her, then avoided holding the gaze for too long. "No," he answered vaguely, but perhaps the vagueness was enough. He still seemed wound-up and unready to talk about it. "I'm going to creep across the hall and wash my face then."

"Just don't make too much noise." She bit her lip, still staring at his black eye.

He simply nodded, having very little to say in the moment. He took off his shoes and set them near the door so his steps would be extra quiet. He moved across the hall to the small bathroom Nancy and Mike shared and ran the water from the sink. He let out a long breath once there.(edited)

Nancy laid down and faced the window. Thoughts and pictures of how Billy received his black eye and bloody nose circled around her head, causing her to shiver slightly.

After he cleaned his face and just plugged his nose with some toilet paper, Billy spent a few minutes longer than necessary in the bathroom behind the closed door, just trying to calm his nerves on his own. He figured he needed to get back to the safety of Nancy's room before long though. He puffed out his chest and crept back through the hall silently. He breathed out a sigh of relief once he closed Nancy's door again.

She glanced over her shoulder once he stepped back in. "Feel better?" She mumbled against the pillow.

He shrugged his shoulders and cleared his throat. "I'm fine. I'll slip out of here by morning." He stepped towards the bed and sat on the side of it. He settled back against the headboard. "I just don't want to go back yet," he muttered as he looked at the wall. "..So what are you sick with? Just a cold?"

Nancy turned and cuddled up next to him, her arm resting over his stomach. She slowly shook her head. “No, just some stomach bug thing. I think it’s something I ate.”

The tightness throughout his body finally lessened significantly as she pressed up close. He breathed out contently and put his hand over hers on his stomach. "You should get more sleep then."

“You’re not okay, I can’t fall asleep when you’re upset.” She sighed, pulling him closer. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

"I'm fi-" he started to defend automatically. He swallowed it back, knowing Nancy was too sharp to slip a lie past. He squeezed her hand. "I just stay tense for a while. After I get into it with him." He turned his face against her temple and kissed there.

“Well, stop being tense and relax. You’re with me now, not him.” She sighed again, lifting her head up to look at him. “You need to tell someone.”

He looked at her with a conflicted look. Deep down he knew she was right. "I told you." He slumped down a little more so he was in more of a laying than sitting position.

“Because I have the authority to stop it.” She rolled her eyes, looking down. “No, you have to tell Hopper or someone like that ..”

"Ugh, no way," he huffed, stubborn as ever. "Like I've said, I've got cash. I'm going to move out as soon as I graduate. It isn't too far away. If I just bear it--" He frowned at himself when he realized his voice sounded a little hard, and tilted her chin up to make her look back at him. "You can still come with me. To see the beach and sunset and everything."

She smiled warmly at him and nodded. "Of course, and I will .. It's just I'd like to go to college too."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna hold you hostage with me," he joked with a soft laugh. He was lightning up enough to joke so that was good. He planted a soft kiss on her lips.(edited)

Nancy smiled but pulled away quickly. Stepping out of the bed she ran out of her room and into the bathroom, kneeling down at the toilet bowl.

Billy watched her leave, confused. He got up slowly and followed, but slowly, ready to duck behind something like a ninja if anyone else was in the house. Thankfully the coast was clear, and he saw Nancy and blinked. "Woah, I thought you liked kissing me?" he joked again, but worry was in his tone now. She slowly sat up, moving some hair behind her ear. "Not helping." Sighing she flushed the toilet and stood up.

He stepped in slowly and put a hand on her back. "Come on, you need to lay back down. I could get you water, if sneaking to the kitchen's worth the risk..." He furrowed his brows. "The missus make something rotten for dinner or what?"

“No, it’s fine ..” She mumbled, turning the tap on and washing her mouth out. “I don’t know .. this is like the third day of me being sick.”

"Are you running a temperature?" He frowned. "Should go see a doctor."

“It’s probably just a bug, Billy. It’s fine.” She sighed and looked in the mirror. “I probably won’t go to school tomorrow.”

"Yeah," he said, clearing his throat. Billy had a bad feeling in his gut that he couldn't place. Was this just what it was like to actually give a shit about someone? Over-worrying? He huffed and walked back to the door. He didn't need to risk getting them both in trouble by lingering out of Nancy's room too long.

She walked out after a few minutes and sat back down on her bed. “I’m sorry I’m making this about me, you can talk about what happened if you want to ..”

"It's not fault you're not feeling well, Nancy," he said with a raised brow. He'd simply perched on the side of the bed as Nancy stepped back in. He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "He was just bein' a dick and I talked back like an idiot."

"And it's not your fault that you get hit." She looked at him and laid back down on her side to face him. "Hopefully this goes away soon."

"I'm sure it'll be gone by morning and you can just sleep it off," he tried to comfort. He ducked his gaze away for a minute before forcing himself to look back at her. He laid back slowly, propping an arm behind his head. "Yeah, I know it isn't, I guess... He's been trying to say I'm up to something 'cus I'm not out as much anymore and just staying around the house. What kind of parent prefers when they don't know where their kid's run off to?" he scoffed. 

She sighed, trailing her fingers up his arm. "Clearly not mine. Being obsessed with where I'm going, who I'm going with and when I'll be back."

"Least that means they care about you." He closed his eyes softly at her touch. He rolled to face her and reopened them. "Is it weird that I still wanna kiss you after watching you puke?"

“Please don’t ..” She smirked slightly, closing her eyes.

He huffed and rolled his eyes humorously. He rested his chin on the top of her head and put an arm around her. 

He would slip out when she was asleep, before morning came.


	6. Two Lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the huuuge delay. Been busy.

Nancy took the next few days off school. She didn’t really do anything but lie in bed or take multiple baths. Whenever anyone tried to reach out to her, she’d simply ignore them. Even her own parents. After finding out what she had dreaded, she shut herself out completely even ignoring calls from Billy. One evening, she sat down on her bed after taking her 5th test. Her head in her hands, she chewed her lip unable to look up at the stick on her bedside table.

Billy was starting to hate this. No, not Nancy, never Nancy, but just the fact that simple silence was so _terrifying_. Was she done with him? He didn't understand, things seemed okay when he left her that morning. If she was just sick, why would she avoid telling him? He got in a fight with Tommy on the second day of her absence, and one with his dad the next. People were telling him he was acting unstable, and they were right. He couldn't stand the power she cast over him so quickly, and all he knew to do was play the game he thought this was. Just say nothing, do nothing. But he snapped and couldn't stay away. He cursed his terrible impulse control as he scaled her house and banged on her window. He needed an explanation. His angry look dissipated when he peered in and saw her sitting in such a defeated way.

Nancy jumped out of her thoughts, literally. Looking at Billy she frowned and opened the window slowly.

“My parents are home, can you not be so fucking loud?”

His confused look hardened a little, but not as much as before. _Fuckin' missed you too_ he groused internally, but bit his tongue.  "What's the matter?" he demanded simply.

“Nothing, I’ve been sick.” She walked over to the bedside table and stashed the test in the drawer. “Why the hell did you get into another fight with Tommy? Steve told me all about it.”

"So you've been talking so _Steve_ at least," Billy scoffed humourlessly. It was quite bitter in fact. He pulled himself in and just leaned up against the windowsill. "I can't stand Tommy," he stated simply, uninterested in explaining any further. The hard truth was that Tommy kept pestering him, asking what he had with Nancy. _why_ Nancy, and he got tired of it. "I called you."

“Steve came by to see how I was.” She stated, crossing her arms and looked down at the floor. “My phone is broken.”  
  
"Uh huh," Billy grunted, unconvinced. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Nancy was the last person he wanted to be a snappy asshole with temper issues to. "I just-" He tilted his head back to huff at the ceiling. "I feel like something's wrong but I don't know how this works. Did I _do_ something?" 

Nancy bit her lip and looked back at him. It was better not to tell him. Hesitantly she spoke again. “I just think we need some time apart.”

Ouch. Were words like that really supposed to hurt his chest that bad? He thought that was just a figure of speech. He felt like a fucking fool. They'd talked about doing so much together. Had she been lying? "That's such bullshit, that's it?" he breathed out. "I- What even _were_ we anyway?" he tried to laugh it off.  "Whatever, Nancy." He had to get out of there. 

She frowned at his laugh. “What are we? You think this is a joke? You have no idea how hard this is on me, Billy.” She gulped, folding her arms. She slowly walked over to the bin which had the test’s box sticking out and stood in front of it. “If you want to act like an asshole, you can leave.”

He gripped the windowsill and took a step backward, trying to make his move to do just that. He felt stricken though, something forcing and telling him he needed to stay because she clearly wasn't telling him everything. "What's hard on you?" He squinted at her posture, which he'd always been good at reading in people. It was defensive. "Is it your parents? They think I'm too bad?" They wouldn't be wrong, his mind told him.

“Just everything.” She stammered, feeling tears in the corner of her eyes. “You don’t understand.”

Billy watched her walls start to crumble and felt a new emotion strike him. It was fear, replacing all the heartbroken rage for a moment. "Help me understand," he ground out, sounding so much more pleading than he meant to. He pushed himself off the windowsill and walked towards her, where she stood in front of the garbage bin. "I'm trying to be better, Nancy. Just tell me what's wrong."

“I thought we were being careful.” She muttered, looking down at the floor.

"What?" he pried exasperatedly. "I don't know what that-" He stopped in front of her and touched the sides of her face, making her look back up at him. The gears started to turn in his head, because he wasn't an idiot: the puking, this 'being careful' whatever she was talking about. "Hey..."

She sighed and slowly pushed him off. “I’m pregnant, Hargrove.” She scanned his face for a reaction, chewing her lip.

  
He'd been dreading hearing her say that word, and praying he was wrong. Suddenly he felt like he was about to be the one throwing up. "No... We _were_ careful, we got the pill and everything. We were careful," he croaked out. He just let himself be nudged back a bit, where he stood frozen, balking at her. He looked unlike he ever had before: like a terrified little boy with _no_ confidence whatsoever. "Are you sure?"

“100%.” She sighed, walking over to the drawer and opening it to take out 5 positive tests. “They all have two lines.”

Billy stared at them in disbelief. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, keeping himself composed although there was deep seated panic in him now. "Were you not going to tell me or what, Nancy...?" he breathed out, pushing a hand through his hair. "This is fine. I've got the money, we can just take you to a place to get rid of it." He assumed that was the route they'd be taking, anyway. He couldn't be a father, the idea of it made him physically ill and imagining himself like his own, and Nancy had better plans for herself than settling down with a kid.

She looked at him and frowned. “Get rid of it? Are you fucking serious, Billy? I’m not getting an abortion.” She gulped and crossed her arms again, feeling sick. “I didn’t know how you’d react, I thought you’d be mad at me.”

" _Yeah,_ get rid-" He bit his lip. The deep-seated panic grew at her words. No abortion. No, no, she _had_ to get an abortion. She couldn't get all moral on him now, fuck. "No, I'm not mad, Jesus... Why _not,_ Nancy? I'm offering to pay for it. Your parents don't even have to know, it can be over."

“I don’t want your fucking money, Billy. I’m not getting an abortion. I don’t want one.” She wiped her eyes and sat down on her bed. “There’s other fucking options, you asshole.”

He bit the inside of his cheek. Any harder and he might've broken the skin. "Okay," he started tightly. He walked to the bed and sat on the edge of it. "Okay, not that," he repeated softer after exhaling, "Tell me what you want to do then. The options."

“Well, adoption .. “ She sniffed looking at her hands. “That way he or she will have a chance at life with better parents.” Glancing at him she sighed. “Or keep him or her, which I get the vibe you don’t want to do.”

His face screwed up a little. He could feel her glance at him, but couldn't look back. He just stared at his feet, leaning his arms on his knees, hunched over. "You'd really want to do something like that?" _with me_ , he didn't add, but it was implied. "It's just... I love you, but I want you to go to college and everything. And I can't be a dad. I just can't," he choked a little, and cleared his throat and shook his head. "I think the first option would just be best. For the kid, and you, you know?"

“No, I get it.” She wiped her eyes again, looking down. “I do too.” She added quietly.

He finally looked at Nancy and watched her wipe her eyes, feeling his heart ache. He moved up the bed, crawling toward her tentatively and touched her hand. "It'll be okay," he said, though there was still a stark lack of his usual confidence in his voice. Just for that first part though. He added sincerely, "I'm going to be here through all of it."

“Just .. try not to get into fights at school, okay? If people say dumb things then just ignore them, please.” She sighed, looking back at him.

He furrowed his brows. God, he hadn't even thought about how they'd deal with it at school yet in the coming months. Or Nancy's parents, who would maybe call his dad and Susan. He tried to keep his mind from going off the rails while Nancy was waiting for a response. It was hard, though, when fear was running through him. "I'll try..." he muttered. He studied her face searchingly. "I'm really sorry."

“You should go home, it’s late.” She said softly, ignoring his apology.

He slipped his hand away and looking to the side at the blankets. "Nancy," he started, praying for his confidence to return. He looked back at her seriously. "You can't shut me out with this. I need to be here for you." He touched her face instead, wiping one of her damp cheeks with the backs of his fingers. "You can't possibly think I can go home with this on my mind right now?"  
  
“I want to be alone.” She sniffed, standing up quickly once his hand went to her face. “Don’t go home, go for a drive or something .. Just, please leave.”

Did he say something wrong? Billy grimaced and drew his hand back, though his whole body ached to draw her in close and just _touch_ , nurture in a way he'd never felt before because there was something precious and theirs in her now. _What the fuck?_ he thought to himself, clearing his throat again and edging off the bed. "Okay... Please, you've gotta call me back or something when you're ready."

“I’ll see you soon.” She mumbled, avoiding eye contact as much as possible. She slowly opened the window again, waiting for him to walk over to it.

Like a guilty dog with its tail between its legs, being sent outside for chewing up a damn pair of shoes, Billy went to the window. What did _soon_ mean? The uncertainty was killing him. He ached for her to look at him, but couldn't bring himself to reach out and touch her. She probably hated him for all his touches, which got them into this mess. "I'll be waiting." He threw a leg out the window and made his move to leave.  
  
  


\------

 

Three weeks passed and Nancy was finally back at school. She was standing with Steve at his locker.

Billy had to go through a lot of self-realization in that time: realizing he wasn't as hard as he painted  himself out to be (or Wheeler had turned him soft) and he needed to grow the fuck up a little. The first part of his bullshit emotional journey he never asked for wasn't exactly smooth-sailing, however. After the first week of silence he tried to deal with it by regressing, hard. Partying harder until even shithead Tommy was worried about him, and walking through the halls like he owned them. He was in a classroom right now, writing punishment sentences on the chalkboard.

Nancy walked away after a long conversation and found herself walking towards the classroom which Billy was in. Opening the door, she looked around for the teacher who didn’t seem to be present. She looked at him and sighed. “What did you do?”

He gripped the chalk a little tighter, but continued writing, the tapping of chalk the only bit of noise in the empty room. He motioned towards the board with his other hand. It was pretty self-explanatory, saying 'I will not smoke in the boys' room.'

She looked at the words and raised her eyebrows. “You usually smoke outside of school, why be so careless?”

He just huffed in response. He would have kept on writing too, refusing to respond like a child, if the chalk didn't break from him pressing too aggressively and he had to walk by her to the teacher's desk to dig out a new piece. "It was raining yesterday.

“You couldn’t stand under the roof?” She stepped in front of him. “Hey.”

Billy bristled and came to a halt, blocked from his attempt to retreat to the board. "Nancy-" he started, trying to sound mean and just sounding desperate.

“You can drop the whole ‘I don’t care’ act. I get it, you’re pissed at me for not talking to you. But you have no right to be.” She crossed her arms and kept direct eye contact.

Billy laughed in disbelief and propped himself on the desk with his arm. "Oh I don't? Tell me why I don't."

“Because you’re the one who tried to get me to have an abortion. That was your first reaction for when I told you, remember? And then you said ‘oh no, no .. I’ll be there for you ..’ but will you, Billy? Will you actually be there for _everything?_ How many girls have you probably knocked up and paid them off to get abortions? Because we both know that you’ve developed a certain reputation here in the school with girls. You have no fucking right to complain, to whine, or to be pissed at me because I’m the one who this affects, not you.” She breathed out and stepped back.

"I've _never-_ " he snapped, ready to defend, but went quiet as Nancy continued. It was the truth; he never had to deal with this before. He wore condoms and got himself checked, but since he knew Nancy was a virgin and the only girl he'd become focused on, he let himself go lax. "I was scared at first. When I said that. I still _am._ I'm fucking sorry," he muttered, looking off to the side. He looked back at her with new resolve on his face. He stepped after her in case she was trying to leave. "I want to be there until you're fucking sick of me, just _let me._ I'm glad you didn't get an abortion, okay?"

She stared at him for a while before nodding slowly. “I’m scared too, I’m fucking terrified. Not only about giving birth but afterwards .. I mean, I’m all for giving it for adoption but the attachment I’ll have and .. I don’t know.” She sighed and crossed her arms. “I’m sorry too ..”  
  
Billy wrung his hands together and breathed out a sigh of relief. He felt like a weight was lifted off his chest just a tiny bit, from where it'd been suffocating him for the past three weeks. But yeah, he was still terrified. "No, it's okay..." he said, shaking his head. He smiled weakly at her. "I thought about it one night, you know? How... I don't know... I'd still want to see them. Pictures, at least... Do you think someone would let us do that?"

“Well, it all depends on the family I guess. It can either be an open adoption or a closed. It might be our biological kid but legally it’s theirs so ..” She shrugged lightly.

Billy frowned a little and looked at the chalkboard for a few seconds, looking lost. Theirs. Then he shook off his stunned state and reached out to Nancy, pulling her into a soft hug. "If I didn't have this I'd go crazy. I'm not going anywhere."

She smiled slightly and hugged him back. “Good, I don’t want you to.”

He pulled back just enough to look at her face, his arms still around her. "Have you told anyone?"

“No. Not yet.” She bit her lip. “Also scared of having to face my parents.”

He felt a pang of guilt. Even if she'd wanted distance from him, he couldn't help but think about that weighing on her with nobody to talk to for weeks. God forbid her coping mechanisms were as shitty as his. "We can tell them together..." he said slowly. "If this is happening... I at least want to _try_ and make them not hate me, you know?"

“Yeah, of course I’d like that.” She smiled warmly at him. “I uh, I have a scan. I got two just in case you wanted to keep one.”

"A... scan?" he said dumbly. He genuinely didn't know how much of this worked, God help him. "Like one of those picture things or-- Or _twins_ -" His face went white.  
  
“What?” She smirked, shaking her head. “No, it’s not twins. Thank god. It’s like a picture of the baby. Although, it’s not really a baby right now. It’s an embryo.” She looked at him for a while. “You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”

He blinked and furrowed his brows. The hint of a grin graced his lips. It must've been the first time he smiled in weeks. "I passed Biology, Wheeler. It's one of those little chestburster from Alien lookin' things." He drew away softly so he could eye her expectantly, perhaps eagerly. "Do you have it with you?"

“Great description.” She smirked, rolling her eyes and searching in her bag. “Somewhere, Yeah.” She pulled out a small paper with a black and white picture and handed it to him. “There.”

Billy took it and studied it for a few seconds. He turned it around all different kinds of ways with a completely lost expression, because he couldn't tell what he was seeing to save his life. "So it's that little speck thing?" he finally said, sidling up beside her and pointing.

“Yes, it is.” She smirked at his lost expression. Of course. “It’ll be more clearer once it’s at like two months.”

"Are you gonna go in for another then?" He continued to stare at the picture as he started meandering to the desks where his book bag was, nearly tripping over the thing distractedly. He pulled out a crisp binder and tucked the picture in there.

“Well, yeah you go to loads.” She watched him and smirked. “Careful.”

"I'm fine," he defended with a smirk, some heat rising on the back of his neck. He put the binder away and slung the bag over his shoulder. "Can I go to one...?"

She nodded and smiled, picking up her own bag. “Of course.”

He quickly walked to her side. He started to put an arm around her, like he was ready to walk through the halls with her proudly. He sucked in a deep breath of realization, and groaned. "Wait- Ah fuck. I still have 20 more sentences to write... Do you want me to come by after school to uh... do the parent thing?"

“Not today. I would but I already have plans. But I’ll let you know when we can.” She smiled."Okay," he said. He wouldn't say he wasn't a little relieved. He needed some time to mentally prepare before facing Nancy's parents. He slumped his arm off her. "Don't be a stranger, Nancy," he teased lightly, but he truly meant it.

Nancy rolled her eyes but smiled slightly. “Shut up. See you around.” She kissed his cheek and walked out. Later on in the day she was out with Steve talking with Barb’s parents. It went sourly as they announced they were selling the house. A few days later, Nancy called Billy over to tell her parents the news. It went better than she expected, however her mother especially was quite upset with her. They agreed on the adoption plan and gave Billy the approval of staying over whenever he wanted. Nancy had just hit her 3 month mark and was currently standing at her locker, her small bump was hidden under the Harvard sweatshirt.

Billy walked down the hall with Steve. The two didn't necessarily get along like friends, but in the past couple of months had established some sort of... begrudging tolerance of one another, along with Jonathan. They were close to Nancy, and Billy had to learn to accept that. Besides, Steve and him could bond on some level over their mutual annoyance towards Tommy and Carol. So it gave Billy people to talk to that were no longer those old cliquey people. They stopped at Nancy's locker, Billy leaning on the one next to it and smiling wordlessly at her.

Nancy looked at Billy and then at Steve, her eyebrows raised. “This is new. Something you guys want to tell me?” She smirked. Billy and Steve glanced at each other, and Billy rolled his eyes and shrugged. Steve said, "You like Billy for some reason, so I figured I had to find out if he was holding you hostage or something." "Fuck you, Harrington," he grunted with no venom.

“For a second I thought you were going to leave me for my ex, Billy.” She joked, shutting her locker. “He’s not holding me hostage, don’t worry.”

"Fuck's sake," Billy scoffed, shaking his head. Steve, additionally, scrunched up his nose, but nodded slowly to Nancy. Billy slipped a hand behind Nancy's back and murmured something against her ear so only she could hear. "Let's go out somewhere tonight?"

She nodded at him in response and looked over at Jonathan who was waiting for her to go to English. “Gotta go. See you after school!” She kissed him quickly and patted Steve on the shoulder, walking over to Jonathan.

"Bye?"

"Bye." Billy and Steve stiffly exchanged. They were still getting used to it. Billy slapped him chummily on the shoulder, which wound up being a little too hard on accident and make Steve glower at him, which made shit more awkward.

They went about their day until school let out. Billy sat on the hood of his car, smoking and watching for Nancy. Whenever she got close, he'd stub out his cigarette quickly no matter how much of it was left. 

"Hey," he greeted warmly, but frowned slightly with a nod to the steps. He glared at them like they'd personally offended him. "You gotta walk carefully." Billy had gotten rather affectionate and protective lately, around the same time she started showing.

“I’m fine.” She rolled her eyes and smirked. “Where are we going?”

"That new Rob Lowe movie. Get in before I change my mind," he chuckled, pushing himself off the hood of his car and yanking open the passenger door for her before walking around to his own.

Nancy smiled and got into the passengers side, reaching over to shut the door. “Thought you hated chick flicks?”

"I do," he defended readily. He turned on the car and peeled out of the lot at the pace of a normal human being for once. He scoffed and turned up his nose as he explained. "But everyone keeps saying 'Hey Billy, did they literally base the Rob Lowe Billy in St. Elmo's fire off of you because you're exactly the same' and I have to see it to prove them wrong, 'cuz the Billy in the posters looks like a total tool and we aren't alike at all."

“You do look a lot like him, I have to say.” She smirked, looking over at him. “You’ll see.”

"I look like a tool?" he laughed. "Don't actually answer that." He drove towards the cinema with his hand on her thigh.

“Why do you always put your hand on my thigh when we drive? It’s like a common thing now.” She laughed quietly, looking out the window.

"I like your thighs and touching you," he explained simply as if it were obvious. "Hey," he started prepositionally as he took a turn.

She rolled her eyes and looked back over at him. “Yes?”

"When can they tell what the sex is?" he asked curiously.

“At five months but I don’t know if I want to know ..” She shrugged lightly and played with the hem of her skirt.

"Oh, you don't?" Billy cocked his head slightly and moved his hand to one of hers as it fidgeted with the skirt hem, holding it softly. "... How come?"(edited)

“I mean, there’s not really a point.” She looked back at him. “Whatever they turn out to be .. we won’t know them.”

Billy frowned softly and glanced at Nancy. He was thankful he had the excuse of avoiding her gaze to look at the road, or else he would've looked tellingly sad for a moment. He was taking her out for a good time though, so he swallowed down the lump in his throat. "Yeah. Guess so." He turned into the cinema parking lot.

Nancy unbuckled her seatbelt and tied her hair up in a ponytail. “Ready?” She smiled at him.

He smiled back at her and switched off the parked car. "Mhm," he hummed, stepping out.

 


	7. There's a Storm Brewing My Love

Nancy opened the car door and stepped out leaving her school bag on the seat. Closing the door, she slowly walked over to him. Billy locked the doors and stepped up to her side. He put a hand on her lower back as they walked to the ticket window, seemingly unable to stop touching her for more than a few seconds at a time. In response, Nancy smiled and walked over to the ticket window ordering two tickets. She turned to Billy and smirked. "Your turn to pay, remember?"

He didn't forget; he already had his wallet out. He had a smaller photo of Nancy's ultrasound tucked between some bills as he thumbed through them. "You want popcorn or anything?"

"I'm alright, I'm not that hungry." She replied, stepping in closer to him.

Billy put his wallet away, held onto the tickets, and put an arm around her as the cinema doors opened for them. The ticket taker was from their school, but no one really seemed to bother them over each other anymore, so he didn't say anything but which theatre room they were in.

They both walked into the theatre room which was quieter and emptier than they had expected. Looking down at the tickets, Nancy walked over to their seats and sat down.

Billy kept his hands to himself until the opening score of the movie started. Must've been a new record for him. At that point a few minutes in, the subconscious urge to touch her was back, and he tried to seek out her hand to hold and wound up finding it on her stomach. His fingers twitched slightly, then he went ahead and threaded them with Nancy's.

She smiled slightly in the dark room and glanced over at him. She looked back at the screen and started to watch the movie again. She fidgeted  slightly as she felt some movement in her stomach.

Billy felt her squirming. He wasn't quite sure why she was squirmy at first, but brushed his thumb back and forth soothingly over her baby bump. He kept his eyes on the movie screen.

Nancy stopped his thumb and whispered. “I can feel it moving.”

He looked over at her, the movie turning into muffled background noise as his eyes lit up with stunned interest, maybe some awe. "Does it feel weird?" He pressed his palm flat above her sweatshirt, because he wanted to feel it too.

“Yeah .. Really weird.” She lifted up her sweatshirt slightly and placed his hand on her bump again. “I don’t know if it’ll do it again.”

Billy fanned his fingers out over her bare stomach, feeling almost cautiously. "Hey, baby, do your Alien thing for dad," he muttered with a sceptical chuckle. Then he sucked in a gasp because he swore he felt a response, something ripple under his palm. "Woah..."

“Isn’t it weird?” She mumbled, a small hint of a smile on her lips.

"Yeah... It's kind of cool. It's like they can feel me or something." He felt warmth, and rubbed soft circles into Nancy's skin. "Hey, I love you." He cleared his throat. "A lot."

“I don’t know when they can hear you. And I love you too ..” She smiled at him.

He was more than content with keeping his hand there. He leaned his temple against the top of her head and glanced at the screen. "...Yeah, Billy Hicks is nothing like me still," he laughed stubbornly.

“He looks exactly like you!” She smirked, shaking her head.

"No. No way. No one smokes two cigarettes at a time. What a tool." Billy grinned. "I look as good as Rob Lowe?"

“You look better than Rob Lowe.” She laughed quietly, watching the screen.

"Fuck, don't flatter me." He beamed wider, silently triumphant over his eternal competition with Rob Lowe ever since Nancy first said he was hot. "Between the two of us then, the kid's gonna look like a supermodel when they grow up or somethin'.'"

“Two attractive parents could mean an ugly baby.” She chuckled, feeling another movement. “Okay, Okay I’m sorry.”

Billy felt it too, still so mesmerized by it. "Hey now. They can definitely hear you talking smack already, you better watch yourself. They don't deal with anyone's shit already, they've got Hargrove in 'em," Billy was practically gloating for their kid he hadn't even met yet, or might not ever will.

“Uh, they have a Wheeler in them too.” She nudged him and smirked.

"Even scarier," he teased lightly, kissing the top of her head.

“You’re an ass.” She rolled her eyes but smiled slightly and continued to watch the movie.  
  
Billy piped down and watched most of the rest of the movie in silence, in their comfortable position of contact. Occasionally he would feel the roll of something beneath her skin against his fingertips.

As the ending credits rolled, Nancy yawned and stretched out her arms. Turning to Billy she smirked. “Like it?”

"It was better than I thought it would be," he said thoughtfully. That basically meant 'yeah it was good' to Billy. He finally sat up a little as the few other people in the theater started to leave. "You tired?"

“Mm hm.” She nodded, pulling her sweatshirt down and stood up.

He rose up and stretched his arms up with a lazy groan. "C'mon, I'll take you home then." He put a hand on her back and started down the stairs to the theater exit.

Nancy put an arm around his waist and yawned. “Someone invited me to a party tomorrow. Do you want to go?”

"Sure. But will it still be any fun? You can't drink or anything." He opened the exit door to the parking lot.  
  
“You can. Plus I still want to enjoy my high school experience whilst I still have it.” 

"Guess it has been a bit since I graced 'em with my presence... Apparently some fucker beat my keg stand record last time," he huffed, not as torn up about that as he would've been a few months ago. "We'll go then."

“Just don’t get too smashed.” She smirked, walking over to his car.

He crossed his heart as he unlocked her door first and then his. Once the car was on  'Come On Eileen' played softly from the radio. "Do you think I could fall asleep with you, touching there?" God that sounded cheesy, but it was already out there. He tried to recover his manliness with some more light teasing. "I mean, unless you're sick of me for the day."

She looked at him for a while then out of the window. "I just don't want you to get too attached, Billy."

He nodded slowly and swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. Nancy was right. He felt silly. That first night he got the news, he would have never expected to get as attached as he was already. Fuck this was bad, too late. He composed himself. "Yeah. I got you."

“I don’t want to upset you but .. it’s the truth.” She sighed. “Maybe one day.”

"Hey, I know. It's okay," he assured. He reached over and touched her hand. "Sure. If you can put up with me until then," he joked lighter, to lighten the mood.

“Yeah exactly ..” She smirked, looking out of the window.

He laughed quietly and just drove, settling in to listening to the radio and driving the now very familiar route to the Wheeler house. Once there he parked on the curb by the mailbox and walkway. He squeezed her hand softly and then put it back on the wheel. "I better head home... I forgot I had to take Max to a thing." He shrugged.

“Alright .. I’ll see you tomorrow then?” She asked, looking over at him and unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Yeah. I'll meet you at the party." He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

She nodded slowly and got out of the car. Walking up to her house she looked over at Mike who was parking his bike at the side of the house. He didn’t look too happy but he wasn’t necessarily talking to Nancy for dating Billy. Sighing quietly to herself, she walked inside of the house.

Billy didn't actually have anywhere to take Max to that afternoon, but he needed some time to think about Nancy's words and confront his feelings. She was right and he knew what they needed to do that would be best. Before all this started, he just would have never planned on getting so invested. He'd had plans to leave for California and never come back, but that was totally out of his mind now. He figured he would just deal with his stress at the party tomorrow and all would be fine.

\---

So, that's what he did when he arrived there the next night: he downed some drinks fast so he was quickly tipsy and couldn't think about anything but the loud music as he leaned up on the counter with a cigarette.

Nancy slowly walked into the party, biting her lip at all of the drunken teens wildly dancing. Perhaps it wasn’t her best idea. Making her way through the crowd, she walked into the kitchen and looked over at Billy. “Hey ..  
  
He blinked over to Nancy at the sound of her voice. "Hey," he said with a droopy smile, tossing his mostly-finished-anyway cigarette into an abandoned half drunk cup to put it out. "What took you so long?

“I got into an argument with my mom.” She sighed and leaned against the counter. “What’s your poison tonight then?”

Billy raised a brow curiously, considering all the things they could have argued about. He didn't ask about it right away though, sensing Nancy wanted to unwind just like him. "I dunno," he laughed, looking around and gesturing. "Whatever's in the punch."

Nancy looked back at him and smirked slightly. “This has proven harder than I expected, I miss drinking.” She sat herself up onto the counter, and rested her hands on her lap.

"You never were good at holdin' your liquor anyway," he teased lightly, draping an arm around her. At the moment, he wasn't one to talk either. He was a bit stumbly and unfocused. "Yeah though, I feel like these would be pretty lame without the alcohol."

“Well, that’s not a problem for you. You’re already drunk.” She raised her eyebrows at him and shook her head slowly. “It is lame.”

"M'not that drunk." he denied stubbornly. Instantly he contradicted himself when he zeroed in on her, still grinning. "Shit, you're so pretty though."

Nancy rolled her eyes and smirked, looking away. “You’re so annoying.” She joked, laughing quietly. “I don’t want to go home though, even if it’s lame here.”

"Mom still mad? What's that about?" He kept looking even when she looked away, grinning with all his teeth at her joking. Then, his face lit up with an idea. "We should get a motel or something then, then you don't got to," he suggested all too eagerly.

“She’s got it in her head that she now wants me to keep the baby.” She sighed and looked back at him. “A motel? Wouldn’t that be expensive?”

"I started working at that body shop, y'know? I've got money. Or we could just steal a room he-" He shrugged. The first thing Nancy said went over his head at first, then his delayed reaction finally came in the form of his grin falling, his words cutting off, and his eyes blinking. "How come?"

"I don't know .. She's just been thinking about it more. Probably because she wants a baby but you know, no luck there." She shrugged and rested her hand on her stomach.

"Greeeedy. She already had the cutest baby ever," Billy drawled against Nancy's ear. He really did just get stupidly affectionate when he was drunk now. It was an improvement over getting in drunken fistfights, that's for sure. He touched her stomach too without a second thought.  
  
Nancy couldn't help but smirk at his comment. "You're so weird when you're drunk. What are you doing?" She looked down at his hand on her stomach. "He or she isn't awake right now, hence why they're not moving."

He shrugged with his other arm still around her, and rested his chin atop her head. He gave a breathy laugh and kept his hand still. Probably didn't need to wake them up then, if all that kicking was uncomfortable. He couldn't possibly imagine. "I dunno, I like it," he hummed, voice warm and deep and dripping like molasses. "How do people do it when they're pregnant? Does it like, hurt the thing? Bonk it in the head? That's weird as fuck," he rambled.

"Okay, seriously what are you on?" She laughed again and shook her head. "No, it doesn't go that far."

"Hm," he hummed suspiciously, seemingly unconvinced. "Definitely think they put a lot of tequila in the punch." He forgot about not moving his hand pretty fast after telling himself not too, smoothing his hand languidly and kissing the top of her head. "You wanna go dance or somethin'?"

"No, I'm fine here .." She smiled  and kissed his cheek before pulling away once she felt the baby move. "Woah."

"Alright." Billy felt the roll of their foot under the skin. "Fuck sorry, did I wake it up?" he asked in confused astonishment. He removed his hand and rested it on her knee instead. "Oops."

"But anyway, back to my mom .." She sighed, leaning against him. "I told her that I'm sticking with my plan."

"...Yeah?" Billy scratched his lightly-stubbled jaw. He reached for the cup, forgetting he ashed a cigarette in it, and cringed hard when he took a sip and was reminded. He cleared his throat before he continued. "I mean, it's whatever you wanna do when it comes down to it... That's what you really want to do?"

"Well, yeah." She looked back at him. "Are you having second thoughts? Billy you know how much work a baby is .. Plus we’re teenagers. And I want to go to college and go to LA with you ..” She sighed quietly and leaned up against him again, her head resting on his shoulder.

"No, no, I think what you're saying is the best thing to do. Seriously. I'm just drunk n' sentimental right now," he assured, laughing and pushing a hand through his hair. "You do...?" he asked with wonder. "You wanna go to LA? With me?"(edited)

“Of course I want to go to LA with you, dummy.” She teased, smirking slightly. “I want to get out of this stupid place, see the beach,  attempt to get a tan.” She looked down at her pale arm and laughed quietly, shaking her head.

"You'd look super hot with a tan," he agreed dreamily. "But you still look good now," he clarified. Of course she did, he was basically a magnet towards her now.  She even looked the same level of breathtaking with the bump in her belly. "I just didn't think... you know, I'd... I know I reacted shitty at first... so I never expected to want an open adoption sort of thing or anything, but..." The tequila had him honest, but bad at finishing his thoughts, trailing off between their subjects. "...We probably can't live right in LA, it's expensive as fuck," he laughed.(edited)

"You're really drunk." She smirked and shook her head. "I don't want to live with you just yet, just maybe go down to LA for a week or something during spring break in college." Her hand stroked her bump as she could feel movement.

"Oh yeah, yeah," he blinked. His face would've flushed if it wasn't already that way from drinking. "Me neither??? Cohabiting unmarried is like, so un-Christian!" he tried to recover with sarcasm (obviously Billy was a horrible Catholic already), but it was already pretty obvious drunk helplessly infatuated Billy was planning way too far ahead. He stared at her hand. "Is it bad right now?"

“What you did to get me pregnant was un-christian.” She teased, laughing quietly. Looking down at her own hand she shook her head slowly. “What? No, just feels weird. I’m not completely used to it yet.”

"I'm pretty sure it was as good as finding Jesus though." Smooth, shitbird.  He grinned with all his teeth. "You sure you don't want to like... get a motel somewhere? Have a night away from your mom? It might be nice."

“You can’t drive.” Nancy stepped back and looked up at him. “How are we going to get there?”

"Can you not drive stick?" he asked curiously. Come to think of it, she never had taken his baby- second, metal baby- for a spin.

“Well, I can but .. You’re not going to let me drive your car. That’s like your child.” She smirked and crossed her arms.

"Over certain circumstances, my child priorities have since changed," he drawled, smirking dumbly, stepping in and putting his hands on her back softly.  "I'll probably just pop a boner with you behind the wheel of it, that's all."

“You’d really let me drive your car?” She grinned to herself, turning around to face him.

"Yeah? You never asked," he defended, furrowing his brows. "What do I look like, some dick who thinks chicks can't be the driver sometimes? ...Actually don't answer that," he laughed. "You can drive my car, babe."

“Keys.” She held out her hand and smiled.

He patted around his pockets to find them, then plopped them into Nancy's hand and looked way too pleased with himself. "So we're going?"

"I guess so. Come on." Nancy led the way out of the house and walked out onto the street. "Where'd you park it?"

Billy trailed close behind her, chummily slapping and shoving some of his friends goodbye as they went out the door, a few cooing harmlessly over them leaving together. "Just around the corner."

Nancy walked towards the car and opened the drivers side, smiling slightly. "This is exciting."

"The gas is super punchy," he advised as he clambered in. He loved it for accelerating like a hellion. "This feels weird," he commented, looking around the cabin of his car. "I wasn't in this seat since my dad taught me how to drive," he said a bit absently as if remembering, feeling the seat fabric.

She sat down in the drivers seat and closed the door. Putting on her seatbelt, she put both hands on the wheel. "Has anyone ever drived your car before?"

"Max and her friends took it for a spin while I was passed out once," he said with a dry laugh. He hoped she didn't ask for a better explanation for that, because he still had no fucking idea himself. He studied her with a warm, blatant expression.

Nancy smirked and shook her head. She adjusted the seat slightly and started the engine, moving her hair out of her face. "Well, this should be fun. Seatbelt." She looked at him and nodded at his discarded seatbelt.

He blinked. "What? Oh." He clicked his belt into place with a laugh and eye roll.  "Yep, you look so gorgeous. Maybe better than Molly Ringwald."

"Maybe better?" She gasped dramatically and smirked, slowly pulling onto the road. "Don't distract me."

" _Maybe,_ " he said, rubbing his chin in mock thoughtfulness. He obviously dug Nancy way more. "So what place are we going to? There's that one off 30."

“Then let’s go to that.” Nancy continued to drive, smoothing down her dress so it wouldn’t ride up.

He settled back in his seat, cracking the window slightly to the breath in the fresh evening air.

She hummed quietly and leaned back in the seat. "You feeling okay?" She glanced over at him.

"Yeah .. Why wouldn't I be? Are you okay, princess?"

"You drank a lot. If you're sick, I'm not cleaning it." Nancy smirked slightly and looked back at the road. "I'm great."

"I'm not _that_ wasted," he defended stubbornly. "Not enough to puke. Maybe to ask you if I can jack off to the side again," he snickered fondly at the memory.

Nancy rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're so gross."

"Well maybe I won't have to just jack off?" he asked sweetly. "A motel room all to ourselves..."

"Are you really trying to get me to go to this motel just to fuck me?" She looked over at him and raised her eyebrows.

"Uh." He'd be lying if he said it hadn't crossed his mind. They really hadn't done much since that first time. It was always stressful with her parents around her house, and he worried she didn't want to again, since it only took one time to put them in this... baby situation. "Well, no... I just."

“Billy.” Nancy pulled over to the side and glared at him. “Are you fucking serious?”

Billy had enough sense through his drunken haze to realize he was hurdling towards being in trouble when Nancy pulled over and looked at him like that. Shit, shit. "No," he said firmer. "Of course that isn't the only reason, Nance, c'mon. If we were still at me just wanting to have sex with you, why would I want to be around you all the time and touch your bump all the time and grow old with you and figure out if I won't ever be a shitty dad like my dad," he rambled on with drunk honesty.

Nancy scoffed and looked ahead, slowly shaking her head. “You’re so full of shit.”

His brows knitted together. He blinked, and his eyes went hard. "Oh am I?" He glared back out the window. "Forget I said anything." He silently pleaded for her to just drive.

"Yeah, Billy. You are." She looked out of the window and breathed out slowly. "Forget huh?"

He knew it was petty and immature to stay quiet, to refuse her a response. But admittedly, he was hurt and not perfect. He'd changed a lot since their whole thing started, excuse him for thinking once with his dick. To be called full of shit, he was going to stew for a few minutes.

"Right. Of course." Nancy started the car again and turned it around, driving away from the motel. She kept her eyes on the road, refusing to glance over at him.

He watched the same scenery pass back by and dread started to well up in his gut. Where were they going? He felt a pang of regret and disappointment, but didn't ask why they changed course. But he stayed stubborn and chewed on his lip.

Nancy parked up once they reached his house and unbuckled her seatbelt. "I'll see you at school." She threw his keys at him and got out of his car, walking down the sidewalk to go to her own house which she knew was a few blocks away.

He finally cracked when he realized she intended on walking home. "Nancy, Nancy, come on, don't do that," he breathed, stumbling out of the car and tailing her. "Hey, don't walk home alone through this neighbourhood. Please. At least let me call somebody for you."

"I can look after myself. Go home, Billy." She spat, continuing to walk and quickening her pace.

"No!" he snapped, kicking a neighbour's mailbox so hard it rattled. "I'm not full of shit!" He didn't grab or yank her or put either hand on her, but he did storm forward to wheel around in front of her in a last ditch effort to get her to stop for a second. "I'm sorry? I'm sorry I ever started hanging around you or falling in love with you? Knocking you up so you have to keep me around for a few months? Jesus, is that what you want me to say?"

She winced once she heard the mailbox and looked away from him. "Well, I never planned on keeping you around." Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. "Move, Billy."

The anger and frustration melted away into... something else, something way to vulnerable and taken aback and sobered. Then it closed off and screwed back into something of a sneer. "Well then stop wasting my time." Billy stepped out of Nancy's way and started walking, feeling like he couldn't breathe.

"Wasting your time?" She chuckled and shook her head.  "Sorry that I'm such a burden to you and your party bad boy life. God, I wish I never slept with you." Nancy turned around again and started to walk, ignoring the laughter of some drunk teenage boys walking back from the party.

"What are you looking at!" Billy snapped at their onlookers threateningly. He entered his house just feeling numb, Max looking at him startled from the couch. He demanded the Byers' house phone number, told Jonathan which street she was walking along, and holed himself up in his room.

Nancy was dropped home by Jonathan against her will but still thanked him. He was just trying to help out, anyway. She didn't sleep at all that night, tossing and turning every second.

And neither did Billy.


End file.
